Of Course Joy Is a Strategy

And a powerful one at that

Kamala Harris with supporters in 2019, then a U.S. Senator. Photo by Gage Skidmore on Flikr

When I saw the headline for Patrick Healy’s op ed in the New York Times - Joy Is Not a Strategy - I may have pulled one of the muscles around my eyes as they rolled the full arc from one side to the other.

But having experienced first hand how titles for such pieces often aren’t what the author would have chosen, I gave it the benefit of the doubt long enough to read it. However, I soon realized my muscle strain and resulting dosage of Ibuprofen wasn’t for naught. It’s a short piece complaining that Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris hasn’t laid out enough policy details yet; she’s still relying too much on good vibes.

The basic premise here, adopting one of our 46th president’s favorite phrases, is simply a bunch of malarkey. Of course it’s good political strategy to incorporate joy into your messaging, especially when you’re dealing with a would-be authoritarian. As American historian and NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat has pointed out multiple times, including in this Atlantic piece (specifically focused on Chile’s effort to win its democracy back from Pinochet’s dictatorship):

Hope may seem a flimsy thing to wield against autocracy, but it is the secret weapon of resistance and an essential lever of action. The opposition’s optimistic slogans “Joy is coming” and “Happiness is a rainbow” (the rainbow was Concertación’s symbol) helped to lessen fear and fatalism.

Joy and hope tend to activate people, and keep them activated. Fear can be motivating as well, but over time it can become mixed with fatalism if people feel that change isn’t happening fast enough or at all. At that point it can become paralyzing.

And relative to the two sided evolutionary coin of competition and cooperation, fear needs an “other” to be afraid of and compete against. Messages of joy and hope, however, tend to focus more on bringing people together to cooperate for common goals (or the common good). Because of the electoral college, our current politics, and the nature of the battleground states, VP Harris needs to bring together a larger coalition to get us across the finish line. This is a smart strategy (though I do think not hearing a Palestinian voice at the convention was a mistake, ultimately working against this goal somewhat).

Watch this portion of VP Harris’ acceptance speech (below) that begins with:

Fellow Americans, I love our country with all my heart.

That later states:

America, let us show each other — and the world — who we are. And what we stand for. Freedom. Opportunity. Compassion. Dignity. Fairness. And endless possibilities.

And that ends with:

So, let’s get out there and let’s fight for it.

Let’s get out there and let’s vote for it.

And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.

Look at the real sense of joy mixed with determination beaming from her face as she talks about America, it’s citizens, and the possibilities moving forward. This message of joy isn’t just powerful in the sense of being energizing, hopeful, purposeful, and unifying, it is truly powerful in it’s ability to direct and influence behaviors and the course of events.

In our current American context, this message of joy projects power in and of itself, especially coming from a black, south-Asian women on the national stage. Especially in opposition to a misogynistic, white supremacist, authoritarian wanna-be, who is also a convicted felon and, in some senses, an unserious person.

Yes, it’s idealistic, representing a vision we currently fall short of, still requiring a substantial amount of effort to realize. But as political strategy this is gold.

And yes, she’s going to have to continue developing her policies. But to think they would all be fully developed (or even developed enough to talk at length about) four to five weeks after President Biden withdrew from the campaign is ludicrous. As Ezra Klein stated,

I frankly, as a policy person, would not want her to come out with an entire policy platform in three weeks. If you’ve come out with an entire policy agenda in three weeks — three weeks when you are also planning a convention, choosing your vice president, figuring out your stump speech and beginning to campaign — then what you have done is rushed your policy agenda.

VP Harris doesn’t want to be out over her skis on this and make questionable policy related statements she could have easily avoided had the time been taken to more fully develop her policy platform. And she’s having to thread the needle of developing her own presidential story while still functioning as part of the Biden administration. So, in my opinion, the actions of her and her team here have been good strategy, both from a policy development perspective as well as a political perspective.

We’ll get to see her tested in the upcoming debate and future interviews. And again, after all is said and done, we must remember we’re not judging Presidential candidate Harris and VP candidate Tim Walz against the almighty, we’re judging them against the alternatives.

Finally, Healy’s equivocation of Kamala Harris’ message of joy with Trump playing God, is, well, it’s just a little dumb. A bit of a straw man argument. And lazy. For all of the reasons I laid out above. I mean how on earth could VP Harris be coasting on a message of joy at this point, only weeks into her campaign, when the Harris train hasn’t even reached full speed yet.

Ouch! I just rolled my eyes again typing this. I think my face is going to need some ice.