As we head into this week’s Democratic National Convention, the excitement and joy brought to the presidential campaign by Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz threatens to drown convicted felon Donald Trump and his riz-free running mate, VC Hillbillyfake, in a sea of MAGA tears and whiny, predictable complaints about a very unfair, rigged election.

There are 79 days until Nov. 5. The race is in a state of flux, and as we’ve seen over the past seven or eight weeks, unexpected things can happen! What if Ted Nugent and Kid Rock start barnstorming around the country to checkmate the Swifties? What if Trump’s campaign gets hacked again because Roger Stone falls for yet another porn-related phishing email?

(Full disclosure: I have no evidence that the email Stone opened to enable the recent hack of Trump’s campaign was porn-related. But let that rumor begin here today. Also, Stone’s colorful personal history certainly suggests it’s possible.)

While the youthful and buoyant energy brought to the campaign by Harris and Walz is palpable, there’s something else at play here. A veil has been lifted, and that veil was Joe Biden. More specifically, it was the intense focus in the media on the 81-year-old president’s age and mental acuity, which diverted the public’s attention from the awfulness of Trump’s vile and narcissistic character, not to mention the insurrectionist-in-chief’s own increasingly apparent cognitive decline.

Biden has passed the torch to Harris, and the presidential race no longer is about the incumbent’s frailties and flaws. Instead, it has become a referendum on Trump’s rage- and ego-fueled psychopathic impulses and on Republican plans to impose Project 2025’s extremist agenda on Americans. Thankfully, more people seem to either be waking up to the reality of Trump’s demented psyche or just tired of the shitshow. The polls and “vibe” don’t lie.

Americans have been held hostage by Trump for nearly a decade, even during the four years he’s been out of office. Trump hovers over us, a sadistic and unavoidable presence, droning on darkly about our nation’s ruin and vowing to his MAGA cult that he will be “their retribution.”

Trump, of course, has no interest in seeking retribution on behalf of the idiots and marks who worship him and buy his overpriced merch. It’s his own retribution — against those who seek to hold him accountable for his numerous crimes and those who stand in the way of his grimly obsessive quest to regain the Oval Office — that consumes his every waking moment and informs his most insidious thoughts.

Now the hostages see a way out of the gloom and nastiness of the Trump Era. It’s occurring to a growing number of voters that this isn’t normal. And that, yes, Trump and his MAGA sycophants are inescapably weird. (Thank you, Tim Walz.) I don’t know what took regular folks so long to come to this glaringly obvious conclusion.

Most importantly, more Americans realize it’s within their power to help the country move past Trump’s malignant insanity, childish tantrums, and emotional instability. With the exception of the MAGA dead-enders wearing their little ear bandages and big-boy diapers, it’s starting to feel as if Americans finally are ready to change the channel.

There is a long way to go before the election, and nothing is in the bag. But after months of despair, Americans who recognize the threat Trump poses to our democracy finally have something to feel hopeful about. We have a chance to build on this momentum starting Monday in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. I’m looking forward to it.