"Irrational" Exuberance
Happiness is a Good and Necessary Thing in Politics
Earlier this week I was on the phone with a reporter who asked me if Democrats should be concerned about the ‘irrational exuberance’ surrounding Kamala Harris’ campaign. I said, no, absolutely not.
First, let’s define “exuberance.”
According to Oxford Languages, exuberance is defined as: “The quality of being full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness; ebullience.”
Next, let’s break down the definition. What’s missing? Any sense of ‘rationality.’ Exuberance, happiness, excitement, are by definition, emotional states. What tens of millions of Americans are experiencing is indeed irrational. That’s it’s strength.
Rallies Are Supposed to Be Fun
I started my career as an advanceman. During election season, we didn’t set up “campaign conclaves” featuring rational, modest crowds sitting quietly, listening to speeches delivered by bone-dry speakers, offering polite applause and nothing more. There would’ve be no signs, no music, no flashing lights. Just the din of thousands of people neither experiencing nor expressing an emotional response to the proceedings.
We set up rallies. The word alone denotes energy, and in the case of the Harris-Walz campaign, yes, irrational exuberance. For four days, we prepared the stadium, the arena, the field; whatever our canvas was that week, to make the act of coming out, standing in line, going through security, finding a seat, looking for a bathroom, just to see a politician give a speech, a worthy, fun, and exciting experience. One that you’d tell your kids about.
Candidates generate excitement and receive energy from the crowd. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz both possess a rare skill: They grow to match the size and scope of the people arrayed before them. Not all candidates can do that: Some are stunned by the wall of noise, others physically shrink from the experience.
The symbiotic emotional relationship in that hour reaches its crescendo as the Vice President concludes her speech, invokes God’s blessing on America, and makes for the ropeline. The music is raucous, the lights are flashing, the candidates are smiling, clapping, and pointing. All of it a beautiful orchestration of the political, personal, the communal, and the emotional.
Joy Matters
It is exciting to see the huge crowds turning out for the Harris ticket. As I wrote previously, Joe Biden’s decision to step aside created a nationwide sigh of relief that filled Kamala Harris’ political sails and has set her on a trajectory toward victory in November.
While excitment is important for turning people out for a rally, its downstream effects are more important. Any campaign can set up dozens or hundreds of field offices across Electoral College states. They don’t become hives of activity - phone banks, postcarding events, block walks, until and unless a campaign meets the emotional threshold to convince would-be volunteers that now is their time to make a difference.
To be part of something bigger than themselves. To help achieve a goal far more important than simply electing the people whose names adorn every last square inch of the dingy campaign office (they’re all dingy, it’s charming in its own way.)
Those that may not have the time or the wherewithal to volunteer personally, are also caught up in the joyful noise. I have a belief, perhaps a political theorem, that I’ve fashioned over nearly five years fighting Donald Trump and MAGA: Happy Democrats vote. Unhappy Democrats don’t.
Joy is part and parcel to Democrats’ electoral success! Who wants to vote for a ticket they feel bad about? Who wants to spend a Saturday in September walking blazing neighborhood blocks, asking for votes if you don’t really feel it?
Stark Relief :: Trump and MAGA
Over at Mar-A-Lago, the fire has gone out of Donald Trump*. Other than an insane press conference and a lackluster rally in that well-known swing state of Montana, Trump has been off the trail since Kamala Harris’ ascendence to the top of the Democratic ticket.
Trump is angry and he’s lost his mojo. He’s like an old mixtape from the 1980s. Yes, you can still play it, but it’s the same old songs and the cassette is so worn there are gaps, pops, and hisses marring the sound. Welcome to Donald Trump on the stump, circa Summer 2024.
Saddled with his own massive personality disorder, decompensating cognitive abilities, and a running mate who makes Ted Cruz seem charming, it’s no wonder that the emotion Trump was able to drive among his supporters (anger and revenge) is draining away. His super power was invincibility and inevitability, those are gone now. Against Joe Biden, perhaps Trump had the ability, one last time, to continue his charade. Not against Kamala Harris.
Need proof? Freaks like Joe Rogan, Nick Fuentes, and others are starting to look at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (I-Central Park Bear Department) as an alternative. This, too, is bad for Trump.
He’s now in stark relief against a much younger candidate. A woman. A woman of color. A younger woman of color who doesn’t fall for his tricks. His campaign team, so vaunted in their ability to control him (I never bought this BS, by the way) is now realizing their candidate is indeed untethered from reality and must rely on anger, fear, threats, calls of a rigged game (again) and potentially even violence, to climb over the finish line.
*Trump may be down, but he’s not out. The man was born with a horseshoe up his rear-end. We must keep the pressure on him, 24/7.
The Next 90 Days
Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are riding a wave right now. They’re less than two weeks from their nominating convention (I’ll be in Chicago for three days, hit me up if you’re going!) and less than three months from Election Day.
We cannot and must not be complacement. Keep the ticket on the road. Deploy every surrogate you have. Secretary Pete, Governors Shapiro and Whitmer, Adam Kinzinger and Mayor John Giles, and many others are popular, energetic, and able to speak across the aisle to independents and Republicans who won’t nothing more to do with Donald Trump.
The campaign to elect Harris and Walz should not be complicated. The themes are simple and universal. If I can offer my Democratic friends any campaign advice: Make your ads big, cinematic, funny even. In your attacks against Trump and Vance, you don’t have to make anything up, they say all the crazy stuff out loud. Your voters are telling you they want emotive content; give it to them.
Speaking of Trump: We must not let him off the mat. The harder we push, the worse he will act. As his behavior degrades, we can push him further outside any final shred of reality or normalicy. Trump is too addled to make the case for himself at this point and JD Vance is a College Republican nerd in a big boy suit.
As I have written many times: Trump’s coalition is smaller, older, whiter, more male, and more extreme than it’s ever been. We can beat them, but only if we take all the energy we’re feeling and seeing and apply it to convincing millions of voters: Young and old, black and white, northern and southern, that MAGA’s time is at its end.
Alright gang: 90-ish days to go. You know what we have to do. You know we can do it. It will take all of us, but we’ll make it happen. When we do, our irrational exuberance will be rewarded with a new era and epoch in American politics; one which we get to help write our own future.
News and Notes:
First, I want to say thank you to the hundreds (maybe thousands) of people who reached out to say something nice about my father, Rich Galen, who passed away earlier this week. He was a DC stalwart for nearly 40 years and the kind notes and remembrances mean more to us than you can imagine.
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Had no idea about your dad. I’m so sorry for your loss and mah his memory always be for a blessing.
Maybe Rogan can convince Bobby to eat cockroaches and climb cranes and jump from tall buildings. He was pretty good at Fear Factor. Seems prescient now.