Kamala Harris and the strategy of joy

Is joy a political strategy? A weekend column in the New York Times sparked a debate over the role of joy in Kamala Harris's campaign.

Her candidacy has brought enthusiasm and excitement – and joy – to the Democratic Party. She's riding a tremendous wave of positive energy generated by Democrats desperate for hope in 2024. But is joy really a thing?

Writes Times Deputy Opinion Editor Patrick Healy in a piece headlined "Joy is Not a Strategy."

If the Democratic convention’s message for America had to fit on a bumper sticker, it would read, “Harris is joy.” The word has gone from being a nice descriptor of Democratic energy to being a rhetorical two-by-four thumped on voters’ heads. Don’t get me wrong — there are many worse things than joy — but I cringed a little in the convention hall Tuesday night when Bill Clinton said Kamala Harris would be “the president of joy.” “Joy” is the new “fetch” from “Mean Girls”: Democrats are bent on making the word happen.

Perhaps. But since the Republican candidate is busy demonizing immigrants, complaining about his court cases and promising to strip America for parts, a little overzealous joy hardly seems problematic.

Besides: If anger and hate can be a strategy, why can't joy and hope? I asked Dr. George Lakoff this question yesterday while taping the latest episode of the FrameLab podcast (coming soon!). Here's what he said:

Joy is powerful because it plays on your emotions. And your emotions are everything in politics.

If you feel good about somebody's political views – if joining with them, voting for them, etc., makes you feel good, makes you feel happy – that's the most powerful thing there can be in politics. If they identify with something deep inside you, with who you really are most deeply, that's what this is about.

 This is about politics that identifies with who people are, what they need. You know – what their values are, what their everyday life is like – all of those things. And that's what Kamala has been able to pull off, which is remarkable. That's what a political leader really needs.

Joy is clearly a powerful part of the Harris campaign's strategy, and it's an important element of the campaign's "vibe shift."

Why? Because, after the depressing end of the Biden campaign, Democrats were ready for a major change in attitude and outlook. Their overwhelming positivity toward the Harris campaign is the source of its joy. This emotional current is important because it's highly motivating. A campaign that can positively motivate people to act – to volunteer, to give money, to vote – is a campaign with the potential to win.

Joy is a strategy because it means people are emotionally invested in the campaign. People who are emotionally invested in a campaign are people who vote. So the joy thing is pretty central to the campaign's success. Emotional connection is the marrow of persuasion. It's what every brand/cause/campaign seeks to tap.

Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 after running a campaign largely fueled by anger, fear and grievance. When you hear Trump's supporters laughing, it's usually because he has made a cruel or mean attack. That's a different kind of emotional connection – and it's the opposite of joy.

The truth is that politics is far from logical or rational. Emotion, identity and the unconscious brain play outsized roles in determining the outcome of elections. A good politician must take these factors into account.

But hey, don't just take our word for it. Take it from the Times Opinion page's own chosen pollster, Republican Frank Luntz (the guy who advised Republicans to refer to global warming as "climate change" because it sounded less threatening):

Eighty percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than how you think. I can change how you think, but how you feel is something deeper and stronger, and it's something that's inside you. How you think is on the outside, how you feel is on the inside, so that's what I need to understand.

So, yes, joy is a strategy. But let's not forget: The major theme of the campaign is freedom, and the moral value freedom is certainly a time-tested political strategy, though one that has more often been used by Republicans.

We'll have more to say in the FrameLab podcast – coming soon.

Have Democrats finally started to understand the art of framing? Over at Daily Kos, J. Ash Bowie sees a shift in Democratic messaging strategy:

Many of us have been begging the Democrats to start mastering the art of framing and to speak in terms of values. It took a lot of frustrating years to get here, but here we are! And that’s a big reason why I feel so hopeful about the Harris/Walz campaign and for the Democratic party itself.

That's it for Monday! More soon.