Kamala Harris’ unbridled laughter. Tim Walz’s “these guys are just weird” comment. Mocking JD Vance and his childless cat-women.
Democrats haven't had this much fun during a campaign season since presidential candidate Bill Clinton pulled out his saxophone on “The Arsenio Hall Show” and performed an ambitious version of “Heartbreak Hotel.”
Social media is awash with light-hearted memes of Harris dancing and chatting about coconut trees. Her recently announced vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Walz, is already inspiring plenty of energy jokes. And all Vance has to do is show up to get a laugh.
It’s a surprising change of pace for the Party of Eternal Concern, a cautious body that normally approaches elections with the seriousness of a bomb squad dismantling an explosive device. One wrong move, and boom! we become Gilead, the police state of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Best to remain cautious and somber.
But Harris’s sudden candidacy has interrupted a vicious cycle that has plagued the left since Al Gore lost to George W. Bush, becoming the first candidate since 1888 to win the popular vote but lose in the electoral college. No Republican has won the popular vote since then, including those who have gone on to win the White House. The uphill climb to victory has given Democrats little to smile about — until now.
The dynamism and, dare we say, joy generated by Harris’s brilliant new campaign seem unprecedented, even when compared to Barack Obama’s shocking message of hope in 2008.
The vice president used the “F” word — “fun” — on a call with Barack and Michelle when the Obamas reached out to Harris to announce their support for her as a presumptive nominee following President Biden’s decision to drop out of the race. Harris beamed during the call and later noted that she, her husband, Doug Emhoff, and the Obamas would “have some fun” on the campaign trail. “You’re a happy warrior,” Obama said of Harris, to which the former first lady added, “And the country needs a happy warrior.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Obama embrace during a 2022 event on the Affordable Care Act.
(Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)
Harris’s fighting skills are another reason blue states feel a little less blue today. When she says she will fight for them, it’s credible. She has put criminals behind bars in her role as a court prosecutor. As district attorney, she was both celebrated and criticized for a conviction rate that jumped in San Francisco from 52% to 67%.
And as a senator representing California, she nearly melted Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg with her tough questions about privacy concerns. And last week, former President Trump posted that he was pulling out of a scheduled presidential debate hosted by ABC News. He proposed moving it to Fox News, a MAGA-friendly channel — which in no way means he's afraid of it.
Walz and his no-nonsense humor pose another unique threat to the Republican nomination. The former schoolteacher and football coach has shattered the widespread illusion that Trump is a powerful villain with a few well-timed comments about how oddball the former president and his running mate are.
When Trump launched into a bizarre rant at the Republican National Convention last month about a fictional serial killer, “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” Walz tweeted, “Say it with me: bizarre.” And on Tuesday, at a rally in Philadelphia where Harris and Walz appeared together for the first time as running mates, Walz took time to throw some more shade at his opponent.[I] “I can’t wait to debate,” he said of Republican vice presidential nominee Vance, “that is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
On “The Drew Barrymore Show,” Harris explained her laugh and made it clear she had no plans to tone it down. “I have my mother’s laugh,” she said. “And I grew up around a particular group of women, who laughed out loud. They laughed. They sat in the kitchen and drank coffee, telling great stories with great laughs.”
Before Harris picked him as her running mate, Walz observed on “Inside with Jen Psaki” that “Donald Trump tries to make fun of Vice President Harris for laughing. And I said, you never see this guy laugh. You never see him do this normal stuff.”
Trump's scowling his way into the media spotlight doesn't seem to be working as well as it once did. Trump's superpower of commanding all the attention all the time is waning, and he's a currency that loses value in the attention economy, while Harris's value soars.
All of this could change overnight, of course, as elections often do, but we have witnessed something remarkable in recent weeks: a sense of joy at a time when it seemed unattainable.
MAGA activists have tried to use Harris’ laughter and joy against her. They say it’s proof that she’s unfit for office, but it seems to be that very exuberance that has managed to rise above the noise of an otherwise unpleasant election year.
“I call her Kamala the Laughter,” Trump told a crowd at a campaign rally in Michigan a few weeks ago. “Have you ever seen her laugh? She’s a crazy person. You can tell a lot from a laugh.”
If we can.
