The 1968 Democratic National Convention was over and Hubert Humphrey was in deep trouble. The riots, the racial strife, and the Vietnam War had roiled the floor of the convention as well as the streets of Chicago, and the chaos was threatening to derail his campaign before it started.
Humphrey had begun his campaign by "embracing the politics of happiness, politics of purpose, politics of joy.” It was radically disconnected from reality when college campuses and cities were ablaze with angry Americans.
Flash forward to 2024 and the cities may not be burning, but college campuses are under siege from terrorist-supporting students, and the perception of crime being out of control trumps the reality of declining violent crime statistics.
Like 1968, 2024 sees America hugely divided. But Kamala Harris and the Democrats thought that bringing back "the politics of joy" was what America needed.
The sloganeering might have worked for a while, thanks to the most astonishing media transformation of a candidate ever. Harris, the bumbling, incoherent, cackling affirmative action hire, suddenly became a cool, competent manager who talked about the "future" and convinced people that she could handle it.
Unfortunately for Harris, the media's elevation of her to national Democratic icon fell flat when the curtain was pulled back and the truth was revealed: Kamala Harris has nothing new to offer.
When Humphrey realized that the "politics of joy" wasn't working, he switched gears and tore into Richard Nixon. He called him a threat to democracy, civil rights, and the working man.
Sound familiar?
Humphrey was forced to abandon his "Happy Warrior" personae and become an attack dog. That's what Kamala Harris is going to do in the final three weeks of the campaign.
The vice president’s campaign speech tonight in Erie will mark a continuation of the steadiness-versus-chaos theme she struck in her Democratic convention speech in Chicago back in August. “Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United states. Not to improve your life, not to strengthen national security,” she told the convention crowd, “but to serve the only client he has ever had — himself.”
Harris’s strategy is an offshoot of Joe Biden’s democracy-versus-chaos approach to the race that sought to cast Trump as a threat to American institutions. This strategy may be falling flat against a candidate who has now survived multiple attempts on his life. Three weeks out from Election Day, is this what swing-county voters want to hear?
Left-wing Democrats are the only candidates who care about "improving your life," didn't you know that? Sure, it's exaggerated political rhetoric but it makes you wonder: just who is inciting violence if the election doesn't go their way?
Related: The Cringiest Political Ad in History Is the Mount Everest of Unintentional Comedy
Harris still has not given the voters any reasons to vote for her. She's a cipher. Or, she's all things to all people, giving speeches that range between hectoring Trump and word salad bromides, complete with fake accents.
She still hasn’t given voters a satisfying sense of what she is about, what the purpose of her political career is. She hasn’t fleshed out her political intent—what she stands for, what she won’t abide, what she means to establish, what she won’t let happen.
What is her essential mission? Is it national “repair,” is it to “stabilize” an uncertain country, is it “relaunch”? Is it “more from the top for the bottom, period”? Is it “America as defender of democracy in the world”? Is it about focusing—now, first, and until something works—on the high daily cost of living? When things can’t be reduced to their essentials it’s because they’re not real, there’s nothing to reduce. She so far hasn’t conveyed a sense of intellectual grasp.
The only "joy" in this election will happen when it's over.
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