Kamala Harris brings joy to campaign trail opposed to Trump's anger
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 18 hours ago • 1 commentsBy: asheville (The Asheville Citizen Times)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Rev. Dr. Steve Runholt - Opinion
It should have ended years ago, before it even began, the moment Donald Trump announced his first run for president by declaring Mexican immigrants to be murderers and rapists.
It would have ended there for anybody else. Instead it was the beginning of a story no one would believe had we not lived through it: an endless parade of scandals and gaffes and, yes, outright crime so florid as to make Richard Nixon blush.
Somehow, despite it all, Trump still has a within-the-margin-of-error shot at reclaiming the White House and coming good on his latest promise: to suspend the Constitution, install himself as America's first-ever dictator, and immediately initiate mass and "bloody" (his word) deportations.
With the election less than two months away, it feels like we have reached the crisis point in the story, that moment when, unless Gandalf arrives with an army of mounted riders at his command, America's future is doomed.
Which makes the plot twist all the more surprising.
The two exuberant candidates at the top of the Democratic ticket have deployed a new, untested weapon in their campaign to win in November: laughter. The approach is so novel Patrick Healy, a columnist for the New York Times, recently felt compelled to opine that joy is not a strategy.
Perhaps not. But the levity Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are bringing to their campaign is proving to be wildly successful. Jam-packed arenas, not just in swing states but in red states. Campaign coffers, bursting. Rapidly growing volunteer army. And, now, a formal endorsement from America's most popular childless cat lady, Taylor Swift.
For nine years I struggled, along with millions of other incredulous Americans, to find an answer to the question of Trump's enduring popularity. Suddenly I find myself pondering more buoyant questions: What is the source of this joy that is fueling Ms. Harris's campaign? And why is it so effective?
Perhaps it's because the people filling those arenas are desperate for a new national narrative, one not dominated by grievance and resentment but by new, hopeful stories about economic opportunity at home and strong, compassionate leadership abroad.
Maybe it's because watching Harris and Walz out on the campaign trail feels like watching America being born again. A return to a time we once knew, when Americans gladly shook each other's hands and wore Braves hats and Yankees hats and John Deere hats, not red hats.
A time when it was OK to fly the Stars and Stripes from your porch without feeling embarrassed. When you could shout "USA! USA!" in your living room while watching America's Olympic athletes compete without worrying your liberal-minded neighbor will wonder if you've lost your mind, because she is cheering, too.
Or maybe it's the candidates themselves. Not a billionaire at the top of the ticket but a regular person. Not a former reality TV star, but a public servant with a history of prosecuting crimes, not committing them. Someone who understands that people coming to this country from Mexico, and elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean, aren't rapists and murderers, but economically vulnerable people looking for a better life here in the land of hope and dreams. Someone who knows the truth of this story because, as the daughter of immigrants, it's her story, too. A fundamentally American story.
And her running mate: an everyday kind of American. A teacher and coach. A loving father and devoted husband. A guy who knows his way around a hardware store and a doughnut shop.
Or maybe it's because Harris laughs without inhibition, a welcome change from the mirthless pronouncements of her opponent.
Beyond energizing Democrats, the obvious joy at the heart of the Harris/Walz ticket also appears to be having an effect on the other side of the campaign. Donald Trump suddenly seems old and tired, angrier and even less coherent than he's ever been, all qualities that were on full display during the Sept. 10 presidential debate.
Which leaves me to ponder one final question. How fitting would it be if the thing that finally brings this humorless man's story to a conclusive end is the one sound Donald Trump seems unable to tolerate: Kamala Harris, joined by her running mate and a sizeable majority of Americans, laughing for the pure joy of it?
Rev. Dr. Steve Runholt is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
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