Summer is almost over. Vacations are coming to an end. Summertime pleasures will inevitably give way to the realities of everyday life. But will this summer’s particular pleasures somehow linger? Joy has become the major theme of the Harris/Walz campaign, and the splendid French Olympics have given a needed boost to French bonheur. But the joys of the Harris/Walz campaign and the success of the French Olympics cannot hide the continuing genocide in Gaza, the famine in Sudan, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or the unusual high August temperatures. Nor can they hide the political polarization in the United States and France.
What is the power of the Harris/Walz campaign’s use of joy? It is certainly a welcome change from the reams of policy proposals that came out during Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Joy is also so much better than the gloom and doom during Joe Biden’s second term campaign. But is it realistic to use joy as a campaign theme instead of concrete political proposals? Harris’s website has little information detailing her policy positions. We all want to be joyful, but joy is both temporary and simply an emotion.
For example: Newspapers are divided into sections. Reports on local politics are usually separated from the national, international, sports and leisure. We flip from one section to another depending on our interests, but in fact we flip from one different world to another. While the political news may be gloomy, the sports page may bring joy and pride, and vice versa. And the leisure section is usually quite different from the political news.
The Harris/Walz ticket is proposing to bring the joy we associate with sports or leisure to politics. Opposed to the negative, grim Trump/Vance campaign of migrant invasions, crime-infested cities and a stolen election, the Democrats are proposing to bring joy to politics, at least to the campaign. And enthusiastic crowds are welcoming the new agenda. Harris and Walz have injected enthusiasm and energy into U.S. politics after the gloom of the ageing Biden and the doom of the possibility of a second Trump presidency. It may not be the Kennedy era’s Camelot 2.0, but it is more than welcome to Biden 2.0 or Trump 2.0.
Is the Harris/Walz proposed joy dangerously superficial? Republicans are right to point out that Harris has avoided unscripted press conferences. She has also avoided major political positions on current tensions. What is her policy on Israel/Gaza? “I will not be silent” on Palestinian suffering or “[Israel] has the right to defend itself against a terrorist organization, which is exactly what Hezbollah is, but all of that being said, we still must work on a diplomatic solution to end these attacks, and we will continue to do that work,” are not definitive policy positions. Concretely, is she willing to go further than Biden by withdrawing funding and material from Israel? Will she condemn Israel’s genocide? And what about Ukraine? Is she willing to meet with Putin to reach some compromise to end the savage fighting? And China? Taiwan?
For the moment, the joy of the Harris/Walz ticket has been predicated on avoiding tough foreign policy questions. The euphoria of the post-Biden withdrawal may have positively befuddled Trump and energized Democrats, but it has not yet come down from its high to deal with international realities.
It is true that the euphoria of the Biden withdrawal has caused radical changes in polling numbers. A recent New York Times and Siena College poll shows Harris leading Trump in key swing states. Democrats have gone from Biden’s easily losing the November 5 election to Harris’ having a slight lead. But like all highs, is this one sustainable?
The Paris Olympics are another example of this summer’s joys. The City of Lights has not only done justice to its historic splendor, it has provided a unifying French spirit. Screaming French fans have forgotten about President Macron’s sudden, snap dismissal of the parliament and the lack of a new prime minister because of political deadlock. The cheering 15,000 crowd during French swimmer Léon Marchand’s individual medley breaststroke must be a unique Olympic moment. Every time Marchand raised his head to breathe, the crowd screamed “Léon! Léon! Léon!” French athletes like Marchand and judoka heavyweight star Teddy Riner unified the country.
The throngs at the events in and around Olympic Paris testify to a momentary pause in France’s political impasse. The 16- days Olympics have given the French a breather. The French athletes and teams received unadulterated support from their fellow citizens. “Allez les bleus” was the cheer of an entire nation.
“Today, no responsible politician can say that the French are durably and definitively divided and that there are no possible levers to bring them together,” Gabriel Attal, the departing prime minister said in an interview.
But the Olympics are over. The marvellous panorama of the beach volleyball tournament played at the foot of the Eiffel Tower or elegant equestrian riders competing in the gardens of the Château de Versailles were aesthetic marvels, but not political wonders. The day-to-day will take over. French politics will go back to polarization. The Olympics, like summertime, are over.
And the Democrats sense of joy? Will the Harris/Walz honeymoon last until and through November 5?
Summer is a season, inevitably followed by other seasons. And joy is an emotion, inevitably followed by other emotions. The Democrats and the French have had wonderful summer moments. Time, the ultimate decider, will tell how long they will last.
