Analysts note a distinct mood difference between Donald Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s campaigns, speculating which will capture America’s imagination. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, for instance, has declared that Vice President Harris will inject “joy” into American life. “Our next President brings the joy, she emanates the joy,” Walz declared to a jubilant crowd in Detroit. Some commentators note that Kamala Harris was once mocked for her laugh, but there are signs that the same laugh may be her ticket to the White House.
The Vice President took note of Walz’s description of her and used it at subsequent rallies, describing the Democrat team as “joyful warriors.” By stark contrast, Donald Trump opened a recent press conference that he convened at Mar-a-Lago, saying, “We have a lot of bad things coming up.” Trump continued in the same vein and said that America is in the “most dangerous” position it has ever been from an economic and security standpoint.
Trump’s senior adviser, Stephen Miller, insists that the positive vs negative outlook that separates the two sides will not determine who wins the keys to the Oval Office in November. “That’s not making gas or food or housing less expensive,” he said.
Some analysts disagree and believe America is ready for positivity, and Harris events inspire them to see the glass as half full. Nevertheless, polls show that it may not be an easy task for the Vice President. In late July, two-thirds of American voters said they were pessimistic about the state of US politics, but as Democrats have pointed out, that poll was taken just days after Harris became their presumptive nominee.
The signs are that Democrats across the board are elated by Harris’s rise and her embrace of the “joyful” approach. Strategist Simon Rosenberg said the Democratic Party is back “in command” after recently feeling that the election was slipping away and a second Trump Presidency was all but inevitable. “In every way imaginable, I would much rather be us than them,” he said.
Others note that Harris’s campaign is not only more joyful than Trump’s but also than Biden’s, which relied on portraying Trump as a democracy-destroyer rather than offering a more upbeat alternative.
