The ‘Barbenheimer’ Election | Niall Ferguson

Exactly! 

Niall Ferguson says, While Kamala Harris runs a campaign of unsurpassed vacuousness, on the other screen we have the dark, fissile energy of Donald Trump.

Niall FergusonWednesday, August 21, 2024

Barbie and Oppenheimer exemplify the twin poles of America's mood swings. Who knows what next week's vibe shift will be? (Photo illustration by The Free Press, images via Getty)

I am sorry. I've seen this movie before. Or rather, both of these movies. Last year.

On one side, it's:

I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world

Life in plastic, it's fantastic

. . . Imagination, life is your creation

Come on Barbie, let's go party.

And on the other, it's:

Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

Except that this isn't Barbie versus Oppenheimer, the great moviegoers' dilemma of 2023. It's the presidential election of 2024, the nationwide executive search for the leader of what we once called the free world. 

Since Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for the presidency, the architects of the Harris campaign have managed to create their own Dream House. This one isn't bubblegum pink, but it has the policy equivalents of a pool party.