Just give up trying to make sense of the last few weeks. Was the Trump-Biden debate just a little more than a month ago? Maybe that’s why in politics, it’s so comforting to adopt familiar narratives — you know, like Republicans fall in line and Democrats are messy.

In election year 2024, you can toss all that out the window.

It’s true that headlines out of the Republican National Convention noted the GOP unified in support of its candidate, former President Donald Trump, especially when officials and delegates showed up wearing ear bandages in solidarity with their wounded champion.

But that familiar script was true only if you conveniently left out a few folks who in past years might have had a seat, if not a speaking slot. In the same way that authoritarians in countries the U.S. used to mock “disappear” the disloyal — sometimes literally, sometimes by ripping pages out of the history books — the Republican (Trump MAGA) Party of 2024 made sure to purge dissenting voices from the celebration.

Where was former Vice President Mike Pence when Republicans gathered to worship at the shrine of the man he once served? The vice president who crossed the former president just once, on Jan. 6, 2021, might have been met with another makeshift gallows if he dared show his face in Milwaukee.

The absence of Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, former Republican members of Congress who chose defending democracy over loyalty to Trump, was no surprise. On the other hand, elder statesmen and women usually get at least a mention. But good luck hearing a whisper about former presidents and vice presidents and nominees such as George W. Bush, Dan Quayle, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan (whose home state hosted the event). Even once-sainted Ronald Reagan’s importance has been diminished in today’s GOP.

Prodigal daughter Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump this election season, has now endorsed him. Her short onstage speech, a reward of sorts, was met with mostly applause and a mere smattering of jeers. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy attended, only to get tangled up in a juvenile back-and-forth with Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Still, the façade held. Trump’s pick of JD Vance, a doubling-down of MAGA male might, signaled GOP confidence.

Then, the ultimate opportunity for “Democrats in disarray” dropped on a Sunday afternoon, when President Joe Biden announced he would not run for a second term. With the Democratic convention just weeks away, the table was set for a free-for-all, a power grab with party stars jockeying for the top spot on the ticket.

Pundits salivated at the prospect of an open convention, in Chicago of all places, scene of the chaos of 1968. Republicans sat back and watched the show.

What would Democrats do after the man at the top of the ticket, an incumbent who overwhelmingly won party primaries, took himself out of the race, nudged by fellow Democrats, dismal poll numbers or just maybe a patriotic duty to country?

I admit I was not sure of anything. Democrats really do have that big tent, under which progressives and moderates and folks from urban, suburban and rural areas, with wildly different ideas of what success looks like, have to somehow agree on the basics.

It seems they never do.

You could see confusion in the way voters, officials and donors started wish-casting the most politically palatable ticket. Everyone disagreed on the next steps. Of course, being Democrats, they did it for all the world to see.

Biden, though, showing savvy political chops that, as usual, had been underestimated, endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, with Harris quickly consolidating support, including from some who might have been rivals.

No, it was not a coup. It was how the rules work this late in the game, and it was politics, something that Harris apparently is pretty good at. That charge was laughable coming mostly from Republicans who had no such condemnation when the man at the top of their ticket still supports and promises to pardon those who attempted an actual coup.

Harris is still an underdog, make no mistake about that. She may win the popular vote, if her enthusiastic crowds are any indication, and yet have a difficult road to 270 electoral votes.

However, the narrative has shifted, for now and with the caveat that a lot can happen on the way to November. Remember what July wrought. That, in itself, is a treat. Everyone likes surprises — one reason those who dreaded a Trump-Biden rematch are feeling enthusiastic and, to use a word I haven’t heard in a long time, joyful.

Yes, the Democratic convention in Chicago will have protesters. We’re talking about Democrats, after all. But Republicans are not on that expected glidepath to the White House. And Democratic congressional candidates, who know they still have to work hard to hold on to the Senate and win control of the House, are exhaling at last.

The presidential race will be close, especially if Vance keeps insulting entire categories of citizens who vote.

But I don’t think anyone predicted it would come to this, that Speaker Mike Johnson would actually have to caution Republicans to stick to policy when criticizing Harris, instead of resorting to tawdry racist and sexist smears.

What is not a surprise is that this being the party of Trump, Republicans — despite Johnson’s warning and led by the candidate himself — can’t resist.

Now that’s messy.

Mary C. Curtis has worked at The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Charlotte Observer, as national correspondent for Politics Daily, and is a senior facilitator with The OpEd Project. She is host of the CQ Roll Call “Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis” podcast. Follow her on X @mcurtisnc3.