The Democrats Choose Vibes Over Substance

Reporting from the Democratic National Convention, I was surrounded by a host of bad vibes. The protests in opposition to the continued atrocities in Gaza were smaller than expected, but nonetheless passionate. Surrounding their events was a phalanx of cops as far as the eye could see. Blocks and blocks and blocks of officers forming human barriers and wearing riot helmets and equipment. The marches were tense affairs marked by random moments of violent clashes. Aggression against the protesters and media members. And, in one moment that will stick with me forever, a young boy at the protest dared to fly a drone over the scene to grab some pictures and was swarmed by police and anti-terrorism squads. As he stood there, shaken and terrified, they flexed their authority and loudly threatened him and his father with felony charges.

A few blocks away, the vibes were noticeably different. The DNC was a big party replete with celebrities and mass selfie opportunities. All the glitz and slickness you could ask for. Declarations of “joy” and “hope.” A spectacle with one message: a new Democratic Party had arrived.

My reportage and the work of others was met with a resounding rejection by Democratic supporters. Who were we to trouble their vibes? To rain on their parades? The protesters were going to hurt Kamala Harris’s chances. People just wanted to have a good time. What were we doing and who were we working for? Vladimir Putin? Donald Trump?

The DNC itself was almost absent of any policy proposals and, outside of a handful of Joe Biden’s that are being continued and some of Trump’s own immigration and energy-related proposals, few new ideas have come from the Harris camp–and that seems just fine with a slew of partisans. It’s a good thing to avoid policy, we’re told. After all, that’s what sank Hillary Clinton, not the decades of anger stemming from her public life, the Clinton’s role in shepherding increasing inequality and global capitalism, or an unwillingness to campaign in key battleground states. Staying away from policy, from actually campaigning on substance, was now an essential strategy. Vibes were all that anyone needed.

It is a strange thing to watch it all happen. Frustrating, yes, but demoralizing is probably the better term. With an objective eye, it is obvious that the past half century of economic and political activity has created not just inequality but a system dangerously out of balance, feeding increasing corruption and the authoritarian crisis that now plagues us at every turn. Every election cycle, and even every daily media cycle, feels like another opportunity to start pushing back against this state of play and addressing the material conditions that got us here in the first place. Instead, what we get is more insistence on superficial politics and the catharsis of political theater.

I understand the desire for a vibes-based politics. For Democrats, they have lived the past eight years in constant terror of Trump and what he represents, and the last four years with Biden have been an uneven slog that gave way to nihilistic depression. It feels good to have some energy. To be told that everything is going to be all right. It feels good to finally poke your finger in the eye of a group of trolls who have systematically abused you. Politics depends on enthusiasm to an extent, and finding a candidate who can be memed and raised up on high is surely better than wondering if the president will make it through a basic interview without handing the next election to his dangerous rival. Every successful presidential campaign is effectively a cult of personality to a point, and we’ve seen that promising “Hope” and “Change,” all while fostering a growing enthusiasm is a successful recipe.

But what we have witnessed, and are witnessing now, is the end result of a long process of untethering politics from political power. Trump’s MAGA Movement, a faux-populist body controlled by the wealth class that created this problem in the first place, was always an authoritarian movement with a consumerist feature. This is how you get those obnoxious, red hats. Trump NFT trading cards. The whole kit and kaboodle. All the while, products and corporations get sifted into opposing capitalist lines. Instead of Coca-Cola and Pepsi you get “woke” and “non-woke” businesses, movies, products. Democrats have mostly relied on boutique products, scoured Etsy for Ruth Bader Ginsburg trinkets and influencer produced bobbles and coffee mugs with “Trump Tears” printed cheaply on the side.

The project of neoliberalism was undertaken to undermine actual representative government, creating a theoretically unchanging line of rubber-stamping politicians who could say whatever they wanted on the campaign trail but, when in office, ensured the market-driven agenda would continue unabated no matter who is in power. We were gifted these empty gestures, allowed to express our dead-eyed politics through consumerism, all while “culture war” controversies give us something to argue about and divide ourselves over without the reality of power’s influence being addressed.

When you don’t have power, you can have vibes. You can feel better about the things you can’t control. All it takes is immersing yourself in delusional fantasies involving heroes and saviors and messiahs. They’re pretty interchangeable and you find them as long as people recognize there is big money in raising them up or pretending. Robert Mueller. James Comey. Jack Smith. Any number of politicians and media figures. All representing the “solution” while padding their wallets and selling subscriptions and products while nothing fundamentally changes as the world continues to get hotter.

The 2024 Presidential Election is certainly one of the more important ones we will see. Trump is vastly unqualified and would be an unmitigated disaster, especially since the billionaires he represents would certainly use the opportunity to finish the project to dismantle the system they began in the 1970s. The myriad existential crises we face grows with every day and Trump and his cadre of criminals would exacerbate every single one of them, all while targeting vulnerable people who would undoubtedly suffer. There is no shortage of substantive issues for the Democratic Party to address.

And, yet, the 2024 election is already one of the shallowest contests we have seen. There are no major policy debates or decisions. Pressing issues like abortion are centered in the Harris campaign’s focus, but little substance outside of returning to the previous status quo of “restoring Roe” is communicated, demonstrating the fear and denial that has been holding the Democratic Party back for some time now. 

What I saw in Chicago, in the belly of the protests and the DNC’s response, was the embodiment of entrenched power and wealth. People representing some of the poorest and most afflicted individuals in the world were staring down the long barrel of nearly infinite resources, growing technological tools and weapons, and an unflinching desire to shut up anyone who makes too much noise. Opposition to that dynamic, or a solution to the problem it represents, is not on the ballot in November. In fact, both conventions and both candidates have markedly called for more money and more support for occupying forces regardless of the abuses we have all witnessed in recent years.

The vibes are good, but also, the vibes are terrible.