If you’ve been following news about the election, you have probably heard the word ‘joy’ repeated over and over. This is not a coincidence. It’s a talking point from the Harris campaign, and the media is doing their very best to play along.
“Joy” is apparently the new hope and change, and the use of the term is not even close to subtle.
You can see it used in this report from Axios:
Harris vs. Trump: America’s mood-swing electionThis election is about more than two very different ideologies. It’s about two very different moods: joy vs. rage.Why it matters: The conflicting rhetoric reflects the conflicting calculations of how to win in 2024 — and how Americans are really feeling about the state of the nation.Former President Trump sees fear as the primary motivator — fear of illegal immigration, crime, inflation, a declining America. He believes swing voters will embrace his darker view and demand protection, even if they don’t love his style.
- Vice President Harris sees hope (or conflict exhaustion) as the primary motivator — hope to move beyond Trump and fighting, hope in a rising/rebounding America. She believes voters are tired of doom-and-gloom.
The New York Times is downright comical in this piece:
Harris Used to Worry About Laughing. Now Joy Is Fueling Her Campaign.There was a time, early in her vice presidency, when Kamala Harris, aware of reams of conservative news coverage criticizing her laughter, privately wondered to confidants whether she should laugh, or show a sense of humor, at all.They reassured her that she should, according to two people familiar with the discussions at the time. Still, Ms. Harris proceeded gingerly, embarking on a run of tightly controlled appearances. She focused on issues like abortion rights and worked to bolster her foreign policy chops. She took emotionally resonant trips during which she carefully honed her image. Along the way, laughter never really left her.So it is no accident that joy — a battle-tested version of it — has become the backbone of Ms. Harris’s campaign in recent days.“The thing we like about hard work is we have fun doing hard work,” she said at a campaign event with autoworkers on Thursday in Wayne, Mich. “Because we know what we stand for. When you know what you stand for, you know what you fight for.”
Byron York noted this at the Washington Examiner:
Joy is fueling her campaign? You bet it is — no less a figure than Walz himself declared that Harris “emanates the joy.” MSNBC went along to declare that Harris and Walz “campaign with joy.” The Washington Post reported that the two Democrats have “seized on a joyful message.” The New York Times, again, announced that Harris and Walz are running a “joyful campaign.”In Harrisworld these days, joy is everywhere — in food, in clothing, in campaigning, in everything. NPR loved Walz’s “folksy fashion sense — Carhartts and camo.” And everyone, just everyone, loves Walz’s apparently voracious, just-folks appetite. “Tim Walz loves food,” declared the Atlantic. Corn dogs, cinnamon rolls, his very own “Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish” recipe, and more, all washed down with prodigious quantities of milk. It all brings joy, the Atlantic declared — “cold milk on a hot day; a perfectly cracked egg; a steaming casserole dish full of God knows what.” By being so joyous about food, the publication concluded, “Harris and Walz are making theirs the candidacy of terrestrial pleasure and straightforward abundance.”
Finally, watch this video. I lost count of how many times the word ‘joy’ was used.
The memo has clearly gone out.
The trouble with this narrative is that people around the country are not feeling joy. They’re feeling anxious about their savings, the price of gas, groceries, and housing. They’re feeling worried about the state of the country and the world.
Kamala and Walz can say they feel joy until they’re blue in the face. It’s not going to change the fact that most Americans feel the country is headed in the wrong direction.
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