Like its overused predecessors “gravitas,” “maverick,” and “gaslighting,” it’s past time to retire “vibes” from the political lexicon. The word now serves as shorthand to convey a variety of concepts, the proliferation of which has diluted the word’s meaning to the point of being useless as a tool of communication. Today, it signals more the insider status of its user, who hopes to relate his own credentialed cynicism as much as his insight. Insofar as the word represents a stand-in for sentimentality, romanticism, or even schmaltz, the English language is at no loss to describe the display Democrats have now put on for the past three weeks.
What we’re witnessing is bathos on a level that rivals precedent. The Democratic Party’s presidential campaign — once a drawn and somber affair preoccupied with the existential threat Donald Trump posed to the republic itself — has been transformed into a giddy pageant organized around the gratification that is to be found in happiness.
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