Despite what the NY Times claims: Joy actually is a strategy—a winning one at that!

Joy equals voter enthusiasm

The NY Times—being the NY Times—on Friday published an op-ed about Vice President Harris with the title, “Joy is not a Strategy.” This article was penned by their Deputy Opinion Editor Patrick Healy who shared how he “cringed a little in the convention hall Tuesday night when Bill Clinton said Kamala Harris would be “the president of joy.” He then criticized Harris for not laying out policy details. Of course, this article was shared by many on the right to make the point, “Even the New York Times isn’t buying Kamala’s policies or lack thereof.”

But here’s some breaking news for Healy and others in corporate media and MAGA. Joy—like hope-- is absolutely a strategy.  And to be candid, so is Donald Trump’s strategy of hate and anger.  The question is what strategy will resonate more with voters to animate them to cast a ballot in 2024?

Here’s the spoiler alert: Joy will win in 2024!  Not just because I’m on the side of “joy.” But given “joy” is and will continue to yield tangible benefits for Harris and Democrats. “Joy” is the reason the Harris campaign raised $82 million during the DNC week, with the best hour coming after Harris delivered her acceptance speech—as we learned Sunday. (And more than $540 million since she began her campaign a month ago.) “Joy” is why people volunteered nearly 200,000 new shifts to work on the campaign during the DNC week. And “joy” matters because in close elections, energy and excitement increases voter turnout.

Let’s take a step back for a moment to look at the two political conventions. I know, “we are not going back,” but it’s okay for this point :)

Last week’s Democratic National Convention was a buffet of joy.  We heard “joy” literally embraced in speech after speech such as when Oprah declared, “Let us choose joy!” bringing the DNC delegates to their feet.  Former President Obama stated, “We want to be better. And the joy and the excitement that we’re seeing around this campaign tells us we’re not alone.” Pete Buttigieg proclaimed, "I believe in a better politics, one that finds us at our most decent and open and brave, the kind of politics that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are offering," he added, noting "there is joy in it!"  

In fact the word “joy” was proclaimed close to 100 times by speakers at the DNC. However, “joy” was uttered less than 5 times at the RNC.

Even the DNC supplied signs to delegates at the convention conjured up positive vibes such as the ones that read: “For our Future,” “Thank you Joe,” and “Freedom.” And Vice President Harris’s closing night speech inspired joy with lines like, “Let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: Freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities.”

In contrast, the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July was dark, angry and hate-filled—perfectly summing up Trump and his MAGA movement. For starters, the RNC supplied signs to their delegates that by design did not conjure up joy or hope like Democrats. Instead, the GOP’s signs read, “Mass Deportation Now!” “Stop Biden’s Border Bloodbath” and “Fire Joe Biden.”

Compare GOP’s anger on the left with the Democrats JOY on the right

While the message of Harris and other Democrats intended to appeal to the best in us, Trump and his running mate JD Vance appealed to the worst.

During their RNC speeches, the Trump and Vance said the word “invasion” 14 times in the context of immigrants invading our nation and bringing crime. For example, Trump during his acceptance speech fear mongered with lines like, there’s “a massive invasion at our southern border that has spread misery, crime, poverty, disease, and destruction to communities all across our land.” Adding for bad measure, “Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”

This message to the white MAGA base that hordes of Brown people were coming to kill, rape and even “replace you” was made by countless other Republican speakers during the RNC. Even Ted Cruz (the son of an immigrant) declared, “We are facing an invasion on our southern border.”  (The good news for us about Cruz is that a poll released Friday shows the GOP Senator only up by two points over his Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred.)

The RNC delegates loved this hate filled message as they responded in kind with chants of “Send them back!”  What a stark contrast to chants we heard at the DNC of, “We love you, Joe!” and “Thank you Joe!”

And, of course, Trump’s RNC speech included his personal grievances such as repeating lies that the 2020 election was stolen. For example, the adjudicated rapist declared about that election, “Then we had that horrible, horrible result that we’ll never let happen again. The election result. We’re never going to let that happen again. They used Covid to cheat,” adding, “We’re never going to let it happen again.”

Nothing that occurred at the RNC was by happenstance. Trump and his convention organizers chose “anger” and “hate” as strategy to win in 2024. After all, they know the GOP base better than any of us and they understand what animates them.

The 2024 election will be close. The great news for us is that recent polls show enthusiasm is way up among Democrats of all ages and backgrounds. As a Monmouth poll released even before the “joy fest” of the DNC, the spike in enthusiasm among Democrats increased the likelihood a person would vote. That is why joy matters. Common sense tells us that the more joy, the more enthusiasm we have to vote.

But of course winning this election depends on getting people out to vote. That is why many speakers at the Democratic convention did more than just speak of “joy,” they also spoke of turning that vibe into votes.

Michelle Obama told us at the DNC: “If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No.” She then added this important part, “We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.”

The DNC crowd got that message as they chanted in response: “Do something!”

Same goes for Harris, whose powerful DNC speech about the stakes of this election built to this call to action: “It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: the privilege and pride of being an American.” 

The vice president—in the vein of “coach Tim Walz”—then gave the ultimate pep talk: “So let’s get out there, let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there, let’s vote for it, and together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”

We have joy, we have hope, now it’s time we all follow Michelle Obama’s words to ensure we win this election: “Do Something!”  This is how we win. And then I can assure you we will feel even more joy than today!

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