How Do You Fight Trump in 2024? With Fear, Humor and Optimism—All At Once
High spirits at the DNC revolved around excitement for Kamala Harris possibly smashing the glass ceiling. But underneath the rah-rah-rah was an undercurrent of worry.
On Tuesday, a Women’s Caucus meeting was held in a side room at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The speakers were well-intentioned and boasted impressive resumés, but the event had poor attendance. The audio was just a little off. The podiums were too tall for the speakers and ill-placed so that those seated on one side of the table couldn’t see the audience on the other. (“Women, we’re gonna have to redesign podiums!” one of the attendees said at one point.) The logistical complications and the limitations they imposed on the women chairing the event imparted a distinct sense of spatial irony.
Much of the talk centered on excitement for Kamala Harris, smashing the glass ceiling, remembering how far we’ve come, making sure women contribute to the campaign and turn up to vote. But there were moments of urgency. Veronica Escobar, the representative from Texas, opened her speech with: “Hello Democrats! Are we excited?!” to whoops and cheers, but almost immediately pivoted.
“I come from the state of Texas, which is basically the front lines of Trump’s Project [2025] and I can tell you it’s a state where Republicans are eager to take more of our rights than they have already,” Escobar said. “We’re number one in infant mortality rates, a state where women are second-class citizens. This is the GOP and the MAGA vision — their dark vision for women in America.”
The burden on the speakers at a women-focused event during the 2024 election is something of a double bind: Bring the enthusiasm for the potentially historic event of the U.S. finally naming a woman president —but also paint a dystopian vision of an America without reproductive freedom, perhaps even with bans on contraception and IVF, and the resultant consequences.
