Joseph Sabino Mistick: Harris and Walz may have the last laugh

It has been a very long time since we have heard the word “joy” associated with politics. But, when Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke in Philadelphia last week, he reintroduced America to the notion that we should happily embrace and celebrate the political struggle for the future of the Republic.

“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” Walz said to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, emphasizing her message of hope on the campaign trail. Later in his speech, he described Harris’ decades of public service, adding, “And I want all of you to hold this and don’t ever underestimate the power of this — she does it all with a sense of joy.”

At a rally in Wisconsin later in the week, Walz said of the Democratic pair’s opponents, “The one thing I will not forgive them for is they try to steal the joy from this country. But you know what? Our next president brings the joy. She emanates the joy.”

Politics has almost always been serious, but there was time when it also was fun. Only time will tell if these are the final days of the political Dark Ages in modern America. The Harris and Walz beliefs about America are the exact opposite of the doom-and-gloom mantra of Donald Trump and the MAGA crowd.

Trump talks about blood in the streets if he loses. He talks about executing our top generals because he is unhappy with them. He takes the side of our enemies against us and compliments them. He calls refugees vermin and accuses them of poisoning our blood. He mocks the disabled.

His description of America is dark, dark, dark, and he makes our nation and our politics sound like the “Game of Thrones” television series with his promises of danger and violence around every corner.

Walz is different. He’s the kind of guy you would bump into at the hardware store on Saturday morning or wait in line with for an ice cream cone on a hot summer night. He was a high school teacher and a football coach, and is a 24-year veteran of the National Guard and a devoted husband and father.

When Harris introduced Walz as her running mate to an overflow auditorium in Philadelphia, she said she and Walz “both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down.”

But, even if America is ready for that message of community — and for smiles instead of scowls — Trump and his surrogates are not ready to give up their deeply pessimistic take on our country. They are dour and angry, a bunch of killjoys. As my grandmother would say, “If they ever smiled, their faces would crack.”

Trump — true to form — has even criticized Harris for laughing too much. He also criticized Hillary Clinton for laughing when he ran against her in 2016. Maybe he is afraid that both women have been laughing at him.

As Walz has pointed out, there is no joy in Trump’s camp, and Trump himself rarely laughs. “If he has laughed, it’s at someone, not with someone. That is weird behavior,” he said. As for the rest of us, God knows that we are more than overdue for some joy and laughter.