This is quite a development.
This means that in my lifetime we will have gone from a nation that could be scandalized by a President giving an interview to Playboy to a nation incapable of being scandalized by a President plagiarizing from Playboy.
Well, she'll be President the day after tomorrow, so to speak. Unless Trump's people pull off a miracle, and then win the war they'd start if they did. The point isn't about her, though, it's about us.
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I put the resignation at 28 February 2023 plus or minus a month. Biden will be a useful figurehead while the Democrats still hold the House, and even more if the Democrats win both GA Senate seats today as appears likely. Harris won't want to be tagged with leading the Party into the debacle 2022 should be for the Democrats, and Biden would be less able to deal with a Congress controlled by Republicans. That will also give her the possibility of serving near the maximum time as President per the 22nd Amendment.
Somewhat more seriously, pretty much nobody will change their mind about Harris over this. Nobody who immediately thinks it's a bad look supported Harris before, and nobody who supports Harris now is going to reconsider their support for her. It's been a generation or more since Democrats started expecting their political leadership to deliberately lie about their policy positions, first being personally opposed to abortion and more recently coming to new understanding of gay marriage, and a fib about a personal anecdote is pretty small beer. I'd wager there are more people upset because she might have been influenced by the man who professed more concern with people's character than skin color since that's seriously out of step with the current anti-racism fad.
... pretty much nobody will change their mind about Harris over this.
Yes, that's the point. The America we once were was bothered by Jimmy Carter giving an interview to Playboy, because of its associations with immorality according to the community standards of the day. These days Playboy is such tame stuff that they're permitted a full time White House Correspondent. Meanwhile, not merely talking to them but stealing from them is considered perfectly acceptable.
The title of this piece is a reference to a famous late Roman Republic speech by Cicero. You could read that either way: that nothing really changes, and every generation is dismayed by the change in morality over the course of its life; or, that like Cicero, we're on the verge of a transformation from republic to something more imperial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_tempora_o_mores!
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