Kamala Harris is the Antidote to Trumpism America Needs

She is the Joyful Warrior We Had to Have to Defeat the Darkness of MAGA

They cheered.

A man responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people and the destruction of an entire society stood before them and thumped his chest and lied about his brutality and they cheered.  In terms of scale and depravity, the bloodlust the Republicans in the United States Congress and a number of temporarily morally adrift Democrats made the slaughter-for- entertainment spectacle of the Roman Coliseum seem like an episode of Sesame Street.

They cheered a war criminal. Led by a Republican Speaker of the House whose claims to be a man of faith are belied by the cynicism of his actions, they opened up the Capitol of the United States to welcome a mass murderer. They conferred the honor of an address to a joint session of Congress on a monster who was misrepresenting his country, damaging its standing, betraying its values.

But are we surprised? The right wing in America has developed a case of demented viciousness that tracks exactly with that their leader.

They Cheered

When Trump or J.D. Vance talk about throwing people into concentration camps the MAGA crowds cheer. When Trump praises as heroes the insurrectionist mob whose attack on the Capitol led to death and injury,they cheer. When JD Vance says his grandma had 19 loaded handguns in her home and that’s the American spirit they intend to protect they cheer. When a Republican state officeholder introducing Vance promises Civil War if the election does not go their way they cheer. When Trump attacks the physically challenged they cheer. When Vance says the childless should not have a vote they cheer. When Trump brags that he is the man behind the court that stripped away the fundamental rights of women they cheer. When the whole lot of them trot out their racist, xenophobic or misogynist dog whistles they cheer.

They cheer a presidential candidate who is a felon and a traitor and a rapist. They cheer a Vice Presidential candidate who is so blindly ambitious that he willingly serves a man he called “America’s Hitler.” Both men on the ticket hail authoritarians and they cheer.

They cheer hatred. They cheer prejudice. They cheer division. They cheer violence.

Their agenda is punishment, retribution, and grievance.

It is dark. They claim America and Americans are failing and that the answer is not the future but the past, to turn the clock back to more ignorant, hateful times.

And now they are confronted by something so powerful it confuses and overwhelms them.

They are confronted by a woman who laughs and smiles. They are confronted by a message of hope and opportunity.  They are confronted by someone who embodies and believes in and seeks to empower what is best in America.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin mere hours after assuming the mantel of being the Democratic nominee apparent, Kamala Harris said, “This campaign is..about two different visions for our nation — one where we are focused on the future, the other focused on the past.  We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity, not just to get by, but to get ahead, a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every worker has the freedom to join a union, where everyone has affordable health care, child care and paid family leave…. This is to say building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.” And a far different audience from those drawn by Trump cheered.

The Power of Love, Joy, Laughter and Hope…

When she spoke on Thursday to the national conference for the Zeta Phi Beta sorority, you could sense how different the tone and tenor of this new campaign would be. Someone in the audience shouted, “We love you!” And the Vice President responded, “And I love you back!”

In her first speeches on the campaign trail, in the memes that have flooded the Internet, by being true to the essence of her personality and her view of life, Kamala Harris has infused the 2024 presidential campaign with optimism, hope and with something rarer even than those, something seldom seen in politics…joy.

That is not to say this former prosecutor and attorney general, this tested member of the Senate Intelligence committee and some of the toughest diplomatic challenges the Biden Administration has faced, this Black and Asian woman who has succeeded in a racist, misogynist society, is not tough. She is tough to the core and strong enough to take on the worst the right can throw it her. Indeed, she knows…we all know…because of who they are…that all she should expect from Trump and the MAGA haters is their worst. That is all they have. The best they have is their worst. Everything else they can muster is even worse still.

No, she is strong. She is saying bring it. And they know she can take it and deliver as good as the bad she gets.

But that is not all she is. She is a light that has entered this campaign, a light to defeat the darkness.

Trump and the GOP don’t know how to handle it. They have tried racism. But when they call the Vice President of the United States--a woman whose carrier in public services is many many times more accomplished and distinguished than both the Republican standard bearers combined—a “DEI hire” the pathetic impulse really reveals just how desperate they are.

Trump called her “nasty.” But he calls all Black women nasty.

They even attack her laugh…just as they attacked the laugh of Hillary Clinton. It frightens them, this idea that there is good in this life, that there is something to celebrate, that even those…especially those?...who America’s bigots have tried to put down since time immemorial have found their way to a kind of happiness that has clearly eluded so many on the right.

Why fear a laugh? (See this good Atlantic piece on that. )

Well, when you are trying to paint a dark picture of our country, a laugh shatters your bleak assertions. When you are trying to break the country apart, a laugh heals. 

The 15^th Century French political philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote, “Laughter is a uniting force, it brings people together, and it makes hardship easier.” Monty Python veteran John Cleese said something similar: “A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.”

…And Don’t Forget Optimism

She is on to something. Something they can’t handle.

What is more, in elections, this is not ephemeral stuff. This is not “the lighter side.” This is what determines who wins or loses. Optimism wins. Optimism is the superpower of our greatest politicians. Whether it was Roosevelt or Reagan, what people want is to feel better, to believe tomorrow can offer something positive. Bill Clinton made something of the fact that he was from Hope, Arkansas. The iconic image of Barack Obama is emblazoned with the word “Hope.”

And now, there is a woman carrying on that tradition, building on that tradition, offering a leader unlike any who came before who clearly has the power to lift not only the discourse in America but the spirits of America.

Ask yourself, how do you feel today? How do you feel about campaign 2024 today? The people I have spoken to…including many who adore Joe Biden…are nothing less than exuberant because of the new energy brought to this biggest political battle of our lifetime by Kamala Harris. She brings a transformational spirit to this campaign. But the real power of that spirit is that it connects so deeply with a spirit that is in all of us, a spirit found in those who have shared her experiences, a spirit found in those who have a common vision of life, a spirit found in all who understand that hope and joy are what propel us forward, that make life worth living and that therefore should inform the aspirations, actions and character of our leaders.