The Domestic Front of the 2024 Election

What one conservative writer’s response to a pro-Harris ad tells us about our fractured culture and polity

A still from the ad, “Julia Roberts Reminds Us—Your Vote, Your Choice.” (On YouTube)

For the past week, I’ve been hoping to write a post about what the polls are telling us will be an enormous gender gap in the election, especially among younger voters. But I’ve decided to wait on tackling that subject until we have exit poll data on how people actually voted, rather than polls of uncertain accuracy about how they might vote.

But I do think there’s something to say now about a related subject that got a fair amount of attention this week. I’m talking about the video advertisement produced by Vote Common Good, “a Christian-backed political organization that has supported Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.”

At the start of the ad, which is narrated by actress Julia Roberts, a man wearing a patriotic hat smiles at his wife and says, “Your turn, honey.” They’re at a polling place, which Roberts informs us in voiceover is “the one place in America where women still have a right to choose.” As the woman stares down at her ballot and then makes knowing eye contact with another female voter, Roberts goes further: “You can vote any way you want, and no one will ever know.” After filling in a bubble for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the woman returns to her cheerful husband, who asks lovingly, “Did you make the right choice?” “Sure did, honey,” she replies. Then, as the two women glance knowingly at each other one final time, Roberts intones, “Remember, what happens in the booth stays in the booth.”

That 30-second spot has provoked waves of angry criticism on the right this week. But I’m especially interested in the response from a conservative philosopher I consider one of the most thoughtful cultural critics writing today.