My name is Joy...yep, that's my God-given name, and I try to live up to it, and may I say with certainty, with conviction, and with a 100-watt smile on my face...Joy is a powerful quality...and JOY WORKS! I couldn't be more joyful about our Harris-Walz ticket!!!
I have a friend who is absolutely convinced that the politicians on both sides are corrupt as hell and just different versions of the same people...that is, Biden/Harris are just as bad as Trump. I don't agree with him. Just listen to their messages. One side talks about hope, a bright future for all of us, bringing back the joy. The other guy talks about American carnage and says he'll fix all the problems, without telling us how.
It was exciting for me as a Pete Buttigieg fan to see him enter the fray and get to the final six -- kind of a nice political flex before, perhaps, heading home to Michigan -- but I'm still very psyched about Walz.
Just to add a detail from yet another past campaign to support your point, Buttigieg's ten Rules of the Road or ROTR include Joy as the final one in the list (https://www.wintheera.com/about/rotr/), all of these rules having been written during the 2020 Dem primary focused on defeating Trump:
"JOY: Amid the great challenge we face, let us be joyful. We are privileged to be doing this work and. we are assembling a team of wonderful human beings. Along the way, we will all get many opportunities to lift one another up and lift up those we encounter. America itself is one of the greatest experiments in the history of our world. It will shape us but we can shape it too. Let us shape it, partly, by spreading the joy of working for our beliefs."
You mention it briefly but it seems like a great way to co-opt the "laughing Kamala" message and champion her own positive message and values in the process
Smart point, Chris. The upbeat tone - and , yes, joyfulness- can work b/c it is legitimately reflective of the dispositions and messages of both Harris and Walz .Harris always presents as a very positive person, and Walz presents and governs that way. The tone is also right for the time. My broad circle- which includes people left, center left, and center right- was walking around in a depressed daze for weeks in this campaign season. We were all uplifted by Harris's debut on the trail, and the positive energy kept flowing yesterday. ( FWIW, although the reference to Humphrey is apt, I try to learn but not learn too much from history. HHH was badly bloodied in his primary fight and by a messy convention (( I hope we escape the latter , which is still a risk.))
Quakers have an old fashioned way of agreeing with someone. When they agree, they say "This brother (or sister) speaks my mind." Reading your post today, that phrase occurred to me. I too have been waiting for something, anything, positive. Frustrated, angry, listening to negative stories from both sides. It's exhausting. I, for one, am loving this ticket. I hope they can stay positive. If they can, they have such a better chance to win this race.
Some younger readers may not know this but Humphrey. Like Walz he was not a lawyer and he was a teacher (college professor). They were/are both members of the Democratic-Labor-Farmer party, generally a populist party
As I have heard people say the party and Walz are positive populist. Trump and his ilk are negative populists (who can we hate today)
Like Walz Humphrey had local in his background. He started as mayor of Minneapolis and fought an uphill battle to get elected
When I heard Walz first brought up I thought of Humphrey
Leave it to a former Social Studies teacher from Minnesota to coopt the message of Humphrey RE "The Joy of Politics" - though they both may be riffing off of Julia Child?! I agree that it's refreshing and uplifting to have political leaders at that level use this approach when there's been so much negativity. However, I hope they are able to find a balance between that approach and what is necessary to take down fascism/authoritarianism, nationalism, etc.
There’s a difference between showing joy and campaigning for a “joyful policy.”
While Harris and Walz are laughing, the issues they address are still aimed *against a type of policy that (according to them) will set the country back, fueling fear. And while Harris is right to interrupt the "lock him up" chants that occasionally arise from the crowd, at the same time she attacks Trump for his past and portrays him as something negative; not just an opponent, but a threat.
I’m not saying they are right or wrong, but for now, their message is different from what they want to project, and in the long term, this difference will become noticeable.
Vibes and the joyful warrior shtick will carry Harris-Walz only so far. At some point, they will have to answer/defend their respective records and articulate a more detailed vision for the country beyond that of being anti-Trump and Kumbaya.
Eventually the ticket will come off it's current sugar high, and it remains to be seen if they are up to the task of an actual campaign.
Their optimism is a good thing, for america and in general. Getting that positive message through the force field that the RWM has built around the MAGA minions will be the challenge.
My name is Joy...yep, that's my God-given name, and I try to live up to it, and may I say with certainty, with conviction, and with a 100-watt smile on my face...Joy is a powerful quality...and JOY WORKS! I couldn't be more joyful about our Harris-Walz ticket!!!
Trump Republicans need a vision for America that doesn’t involve the death of the ones they don’t like.
I have a friend who is absolutely convinced that the politicians on both sides are corrupt as hell and just different versions of the same people...that is, Biden/Harris are just as bad as Trump. I don't agree with him. Just listen to their messages. One side talks about hope, a bright future for all of us, bringing back the joy. The other guy talks about American carnage and says he'll fix all the problems, without telling us how.
It was exciting for me as a Pete Buttigieg fan to see him enter the fray and get to the final six -- kind of a nice political flex before, perhaps, heading home to Michigan -- but I'm still very psyched about Walz.
Just to add a detail from yet another past campaign to support your point, Buttigieg's ten Rules of the Road or ROTR include Joy as the final one in the list (https://www.wintheera.com/about/rotr/), all of these rules having been written during the 2020 Dem primary focused on defeating Trump:
"JOY: Amid the great challenge we face, let us be joyful. We are privileged to be doing this work and. we are assembling a team of wonderful human beings. Along the way, we will all get many opportunities to lift one another up and lift up those we encounter. America itself is one of the greatest experiments in the history of our world. It will shape us but we can shape it too. Let us shape it, partly, by spreading the joy of working for our beliefs."
You mention it briefly but it seems like a great way to co-opt the "laughing Kamala" message and champion her own positive message and values in the process
Ya you're right...the opposite MAGA Republicans right now...and that difference brings me joy!!!
Insightful and bang on
Smart point, Chris. The upbeat tone - and , yes, joyfulness- can work b/c it is legitimately reflective of the dispositions and messages of both Harris and Walz .Harris always presents as a very positive person, and Walz presents and governs that way. The tone is also right for the time. My broad circle- which includes people left, center left, and center right- was walking around in a depressed daze for weeks in this campaign season. We were all uplifted by Harris's debut on the trail, and the positive energy kept flowing yesterday. ( FWIW, although the reference to Humphrey is apt, I try to learn but not learn too much from history. HHH was badly bloodied in his primary fight and by a messy convention (( I hope we escape the latter , which is still a risk.))
Quakers have an old fashioned way of agreeing with someone. When they agree, they say "This brother (or sister) speaks my mind." Reading your post today, that phrase occurred to me. I too have been waiting for something, anything, positive. Frustrated, angry, listening to negative stories from both sides. It's exhausting. I, for one, am loving this ticket. I hope they can stay positive. If they can, they have such a better chance to win this race.
Thanks, my brother! Well-put
Some younger readers may not know this but Humphrey. Like Walz he was not a lawyer and he was a teacher (college professor). They were/are both members of the Democratic-Labor-Farmer party, generally a populist party
As I have heard people say the party and Walz are positive populist. Trump and his ilk are negative populists (who can we hate today)
Like Walz Humphrey had local in his background. He started as mayor of Minneapolis and fought an uphill battle to get elected
When I heard Walz first brought up I thought of Humphrey
Leave it to a former Social Studies teacher from Minnesota to coopt the message of Humphrey RE "The Joy of Politics" - though they both may be riffing off of Julia Child?! I agree that it's refreshing and uplifting to have political leaders at that level use this approach when there's been so much negativity. However, I hope they are able to find a balance between that approach and what is necessary to take down fascism/authoritarianism, nationalism, etc.
And the politics of dancing…..the politics of feeling good!
There’s a difference between showing joy and campaigning for a “joyful policy.”
While Harris and Walz are laughing, the issues they address are still aimed *against a type of policy that (according to them) will set the country back, fueling fear. And while Harris is right to interrupt the "lock him up" chants that occasionally arise from the crowd, at the same time she attacks Trump for his past and portrays him as something negative; not just an opponent, but a threat.
I’m not saying they are right or wrong, but for now, their message is different from what they want to project, and in the long term, this difference will become noticeable.
While you may find “Make America Great Again” insensitive, you cannot say it’s not positive. In and of itself - it’s positive.
Chris, How about the most obvious parallel? Both Humphrey and Walz hail from Minnnesota. Perhaps "joy" is a regional saying?
Vibes and the joyful warrior shtick will carry Harris-Walz only so far. At some point, they will have to answer/defend their respective records and articulate a more detailed vision for the country beyond that of being anti-Trump and Kumbaya.
Eventually the ticket will come off it's current sugar high, and it remains to be seen if they are up to the task of an actual campaign.
Their optimism is a good thing, for america and in general. Getting that positive message through the force field that the RWM has built around the MAGA minions will be the challenge.