Kamala Harris has given us hope. Now we need to give her the White House.

The Democratic National Convention was full of moments many of us won’t soon forget.

And that was before Vice President Kamala Harris took center stage in Chicago on Thursday night to make history by accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to do so.

I mean, that roll call turned dance party? Who knew Democrats could even go that hard? Loved me some “Motownphilly” by Philly-based Boyz II Men and “Black and Yellow” by Pittsburgh native Wiz Khalifa.

And Michelle Obama’s speech? There are mic drops, and then there’s what Obama dumped atop Donald Trump’s Mobius comb-over.

“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?” Obama said, referencing Trump’s racist and false claims during his June debate with President Joe Biden that immigrants are taking “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs.”

Great line. Better death stare.

As expected, that epic comment — one of several from one of our finest first ladies — all but broke the internet.

And yet, it was something her husband, former President Barack Obama, said in his own memorable speech that lingers.

In talking about the progress needed on the issues that affect us the most, Obama said that we “need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices” — especially if we want to win over those who aren’t quite on our side.

“We need to listen to their concerns — and maybe learn something in the process,” he said. “After all, if a parent or grandparent occasionally says something that makes us cringe, we don’t automatically assume they’re bad people. We recognize the world is moving fast, and that they need time and maybe a little encouragement to catch up. Our fellow citizens deserve the same grace we hope they’ll extend to us.”

The sentiment sounded gracious and kind — and, with all due respect to some people’s forever president, utterly exhausting.

To begin, hadn’t many of us already done that, or at least tried to, over the past nine years of a raging infodemic? Just google “diners in Trump Country” and answer that question yourselves.

And what would that even look like, I wondered, as the mere memory of trying to deprogram friends, family, and readers made me want to crawl into a fetal position.

I can accept — to a point — that people who seem ill-informed but not mean-spirited should be treated with civility and engaged in respectful discourse.

But that does not obligate any of us to show a scintilla of respect to the truly deplorable — the white supremacists, the liars, the merchants of hate. They deserve only to be exposed, to be vilified, and then beaten at the ballot box.

So let’s start there.

The eleventh-hour passing of the torch by President Biden to Vice President Harris last month sparked a surge in voter enthusiasm I’ve been happy to see the Democratic Party both tout and temper.

But excitement and joy aren’t votes — so I was relieved to see that the key takeaway from speaker after speaker at the DNC wasn’t just one President Obama powerfully ended his speech with — “Let’s get to work” — but that Harris herself has on repeat.

In response to the crowd at a Milwaukee rally this week chanting, “We will win!” Harris said, “We will — because we’re gonna put in the hard work over the next 77 days.” And when an overzealous supporter in the crowd responded, “You already won!” Harris didn’t miss a beat.

“No … no, we haven’t already won,” she gently chided. “Seventy-seven days of work to do, my friends.”

Well, for starters anyway.

It would be amazing to think that in just over two months, our collective fever will break, and we will finally be able to breathe without the looming orange cloud of doom hovering above us.

But just because Trump could one day be gone doesn’t mean that those who supported him and his lies will suddenly become nonbelievers — especially those in positions of power who eagerly sow his brand of division and hate.

And it will take a lot more than another round of patient, if soul-crushing, talks with Pop-Pop to change that.

Even grace has its limits.

There have been scores of expert opinions about battling misinformation, about the increasing need for media literacy and real-time fact-checking — kudos to the social media hive who came to the defense of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s 17-year-old son Gus for his emotional response to his father’s speech. All of that only becomes more vital as our worlds are flooded with false information and mean-spirited memes. But that’s hardly a quick or guaranteed fix.

I don’t know what the work of bringing back some sort of balance to our political discourse looks like exactly. No one does; not even those consultants and pundits generously compensated to pretend they do.

At the very least, I think the optimism and hope we feel now has to carry over no matter what happens on Election Day — and, yes, I’m acutely aware even as I type those words that will be easier said than done if Trump gets another chance to drag us back.

But we are not going back.

That has been the major rallying cry for the Harris campaign since Biden dropped out of the race and offered his endorsement five weeks ago. Harris used the phrase four times during her acceptance speech, as she issued Americans a challenge to “chart a new way forward” where we all pledge allegiance to our country, and our democracy, not to one weak man.

The party’s over. Time to get to work.