With disasters of multiple sorts unfurling daily, how not to enjoy the overturning of New York City’s political apple cart by Zohran Mamdani? This was the biggest upset in American politics since Donald Trump’s first victory in 2016, and it’s a lot more fun.

The German assault on the Jews has remained “the” Holocaust. Hence the particular power of the example given by the Israel Defense Forces as they proceed methodically to the total destruction of Gaza and Palestinian-occupied areas of the West Bank.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the decisions made across the world to shut down normal economic and social life to contain its spread were real enough. But the idea that the global recession of 2020 could be blamed on the virus also obscured other important realities.

Donald Trump may not be exactly a genius (not to mention stable), but he has accomplished something historically significant in the few months since he has returned to the presidency. He is “creatively disrupting” present-day institutions—political, economic, and ideological—to make way for a fantasized return to a glorious past of robber-baron exuberance and frankly imperialist resource-grabbing.

Choice! That’s what elections (like the free market and America itself) are all about. You can choose to support the right to an abortion and (possibly) healthcare for trans children as long as you also choose the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the deaths of tens of thousands of women, children, and men. Of course, even if Harris wins, abortion rights will have to be fought for on the state level, referendum by referendum—the Democrats chose to do nothing on the federal level when they controlled the presidency, Senate, and House, and it’s hard to see how they could do so now. Still, life will feel better and more predictable for blue-state professionals and their young (myself included) if she wins.