Cathartic and Strategic
Harris unleashes the politics of joy
When Tim Walz was introduced to the nation at that boisterous rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, this is the first thing he said:
Thank you Madam Vice President for the trust you put in me, but maybe more so, thank you for bringing back the joy.
Joy.
It has been missing from our politics for so long that you can be forgiven if you forgot what it feels like.
We have been living for almost a decade under the repressive weight of MAGA. Our days have been dominated by the chaotic instability of a malignant narcissist. We have experienced the curtailment of our rights and liberties and fear the entire democratic experiment is on the verge of being lost.
Recently, as Joe Biden’s campaign spun out of control in the weeks following his debate performance, fear turned to panic. Three weeks of party infighting had mortally wounded Biden’s candidacy while Trump had survived an assassination attempt and was bragging about returning to power in a landslide.
Biden’s exit rendered moot the fierce debate over whether he could go the distance, but it also destabilized the presidential race with very little time left, compounding fear and panic with uncertainty about the future. Things looked bleak. They felt bleak.
Then Kamala Harris walked into this darkness and turned on a light.
With an upbeat demeanor rooted in a deep sense of confidence, her words and actions told the country she wasn’t about to let Donald Trump take away her joy—and we shouldn’t let him take away ours either.
Harris is everything that has been missing from our public lives. She laughs easily. She’s buoyant. Energetic. Fun.
She offers relief to millions hungering for an escape from the repressive burden of our ponderous politics, and large numbers of people are responding. They are drawn by the innate human desire to be uplifted. Harris is satisfying a deep craving in the country that’s been neglected for way too long.
It’s been ages since we’ve seen anything like this. The obvious comparison is to 2008, when Barack Obama fired up his supporters with a message of possibility. That was sixteen years ago.
To put this timeframe in perspective, not a single member of Gen Z had ever experienced a moment of joy in politics, and for younger Millennials, Obama’s first election is a hazy memory. No wonder so many young people have galvanized around Kamala. She is the first candidate of their lives to show them how politics can be fun.
At the same time, the lightness and energy that have rapidly come to define the Harris/Walz campaign is different from the hopeful message that drew people to Obama. Hope is about possibility. Joy is about abandon. The essence of the Harris campaign is that even when we are surrounded by danger we can—and should—enjoy our humanity.
It’s a compelling message.
It’s also highly strategic.
