Forget promoting a policy platform. What is needed, according to Kamala’s campaign, is a strategy of fluffy joy and Donald Trump is bad.

One of the most striking themes of the Democratic National Convention was the way the message flipped back and forth between grim warnings that democracy is under attack and playful invitations to engage in a politics of joy. Democrats at times seemed to be attempting a tricky tightrope act, akin to inviting people to dance their way out of a burning house.

For most of the convention, the message seemed to be: Join the fight to save democracy–and let’s have some fun while we do it. It’s an audacious strategy that President Biden could have never pulled off.

Over 30,000 children who crossed the border illegally under Kamala’s watch have disappeared off the radar. Her response? Crickets. Remember, this was the person tapped to be the Border Czar and address the root causes of illegal immigration. 

A policy of fluffy joy won’t magically find those lost children. 

Every single speaker at the DNC had two themes to thump over everyone’s head. Donald Trump is BAD! And we must bring JOY to all! 

Flash-forward to this week. 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.