A couple of weeks ago, right here on this brilliant website, I wrote about a sense of despair, a sense of being poked in the ribs by events again and again. That time now feels so long ago.

In those two weeks, the political world seems to not have just changed, but to flipped upside down. Everything that had gone wrong now seems to be going right, and everything that had gone right for those lucky bastards on the other side seems, finally, to have begun cratering.  

The election—and, let’s face it, our democracy—seemed lost last month. One friend already was talking about how he was planning to move to London. Many of the rest of us were trying to come to grips with the idea that yes, it can happen here.

Then:

The Republican candidate, surfing on a wave of goodwill after an assassination attempt, threw it all away with a rambling, incoherent, nasty speech at his party’s convention.

The running mate he had just picked turned out to be a heedless misogynist who had left a paper and digital trail of odious remarks, insulting his party leader, women, couples, cats, even his wife. He continues, almost daily, to dig an even deeper hole and has become an object of comic derision.

Then the head of his ticket decided to go to the national convention of Black journalists and managed to offend pretty much everyone, blasting out his blatant racism that even the most sympathetic supporters had difficulty defending.

Plus, of course, he publicly has chickened out of a scheduled debate.

Meanwhile, enthusiasm and excitement have kept mounting for Kamala Harris, and she and Joe Biden have basked in the good feeling and positive publicity of having concluded a massive prisoner exchange. The selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Harris’ running mate has met with near-universal approval and adds a folksy progressiveness to the ticket. The poll numbers are looking better, lassitude has been replaced by energy and my friend is now thinking he won’t have to relocate to London.

Look, it’s obvious things are unlikely to continue like this. Things turned once, they very possibly could turn again. But hope feels awfully good right now and a whole lot better than despair.