Kamala Harris's Authoritarian 'Joy'

We have been told time and again that Kamala Harris is the candidate of “joy.” Tim Walz, in accepting his vice presidential nomination, thanked her for “bringing back joy.” Rolling Stone enthusiastically declared that Kamala Harris’s “new politics of joy” was “the best way to fight fascism.” The New York Times headlined: “Harris Used to Worry About Laughing. Now, Joy Is Fueling Her Campaign.”

For most Americans, it’s just not a joyous time.

No poll shows that more than 35% of Americans think the country is moving in the right direction. Two-thirds of them think America is on the wrong track. At the same time, the candidate of joy has the approval of about 46% of Americans; nearly 50% are unfavorable to her.

Three years of extraordinary inflation mean that everyday consumer goods now cost at least 20% more than they did in 2021. Uncertainty and chaos are spreading across the globe, from Ukraine to Taiwan to the Middle East. Americans are no longer sure whether they can safely say that a man is different from a woman while being told that it is extremely important for them to elect a woman president.

But… joy.

It’s a brilliant marketing stunt, to be sure. Kamala Harris’s career has been marked by three defining characteristics: blatant, manipulative calculations; heavy-handed government interventionism; and a clumsy, off-putting manner that ranges from gibberish to laughter.

But “joy” can serve as a shield against all these accusations. It is not manipulative, it is authentic! It is not tyrannical, it is caring! It is not clumsy and artificial, it is joyful! That laugh you hear is not the strange chuckle of a mechanical politician caught in a lie. It is an explosion of happiness springing directly from the heart of a woman who is dancing inside. She is youth, she is joy, she is a little bird that has burst out of the egg!

Joy is also a sword to use against one’s opponents. Donald Trump, we are told, is a candidate of darkness and vengeance. JD Vance, his running mate, is “weird” and authoritarian. Why can’t they feel joy?

Actually, why can’t you feel joy? Is there something wrong with you? Why can’t you bob your head to Beyoncé’s “Freedom” while Harris dances and Walz flashes a smile so wide it would make Jack Nicholson’s Joker green with envy? Do you hate joy?

It’s all, to say the least, slightly sinister.

It is one thing to demand that Americans vote for a presidential candidate based on his policies, or even on the supposed unworthiness of his opponent. It is quite another to demand that we feel joy. This smacks of authoritarian regimes of the past, all of which suggested that the failures of their policies were due not to failures of leadership but to the inability of the people to change their hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

It is no coincidence that Joseph Stalin’s propaganda posters regularly showed small children looking at him adoringly, with the slogan “We are warmed by Stalin’s affection!” or that Mao’s posters also featured cheering children, with the words “Mao’s words bring joy!” or that Hitler offered free vacations to members of the German Labor Front with the slogan “Strength through joy!” (One of the legacies of “Strength through joy” was the German “people’s car,” which later became the Volkswagen Beetle).

Authoritarians demand emotional loyalty, not just political loyalty.

This does not mean that Kamala Harris is a Stalinist, Maoist or Nazi (although members of the Democratic Party’s radical base appear to favor aspects of all three regimes).

This means that authoritarianism masks its totalitarian policies behind the soothing platitudes of paternalism and motheralism and demands that you sacrifice the real joys of life—family, church, community—in favor of a Big Brother. Or, in Kamala Harris’s case, a Big Mother.

Just feel the joy. And stop asking questions.

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