A Joyful Campaign Ahead

With an exuberant laugh, Kamala Harris is energizing Democrats and renewing confidence about the coming election

Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris at her first campaign rally in Wisconsin this week. (Photo by Jim Vondruska via Getty Images.)

Donald Trump and all the other arrogant, woman-hating Republican geniuses think attacking Kamala Harris’ laugh is a smart play. As if putting her down for her exuberance and joyfulness will reveal her to be unserious, unattractive, unfit for the job. As if a majority of Americans are not sick to death of the nasty, joyless, hateful and degrading mentality and agenda of Trump and his enablers. As if American voters—more than half of whom are women—really want to be told how to behave by a 78-year-old convicted felon who’s been found liable for sexual assault and has made exceedingly clear throughout his life what he thinks of women.

Last Sunday Joe Biden jolted the political world by announcing that he was stepping aside and endorsing his vice president—an inspiring act of patriotism that has led to a swift and electric surge of fundraising, endorsements and delegate support for now-presumptive nominee Harris. That same weekend, the ever-degrading Trump was mocking Harris’ laugh: “I call her laughing Kamala. Have you seen her laughing? She is crazy. You can tell a lot by a laugh. She is nuts.” That was followed by calling Nancy Pelosi crazy, too.

Honestly, we should hope that he and his VP pick, J.D. Vance, keep reminding American voters how much they despise Kamala Harris for her gender and her laughter. Because it’s my view that the more they say so—including their woman-hating views on reproductive rights and marriage and family—the more that VP Harris will rise in the polls and in the eyes of voters who’ve had it with Trump’s lust for carnage and yearn to avert the grim future that he promises.

Take note of how the vice president, aware of the sexist mockery, described the origins of her laugh in a conversation with Drew Barrymore in April. “Let me just tell you something: I have my mother's laugh,” Harris told Barrymore, who hosts a daytime television show and had just told her guest that she loves her laugh. Harris continued:

And I grew up around a bunch of women in particular who laughed from the belly. They laughed. They would sit around the kitchen, drinking their coffee, telling big stories with big laughs…And I think it’s really important to remind each other and our younger ones, don’t be confined by other people’s perception about how you should act…It’s really important.

Contrast that with the sour, humorless, grievance-filled Trump and his running mate who supports a national ban on abortion and who has said that he believes women should stay in abusive marriages for the good of their children. J.D. Vance is also the guy who attempted to smear Harris as one of a group of “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made.” (Never mind that Harris is part of a blended family and has been a stepmother for over a decade.) Do they really think that denigrating women like this is a winning strategy? Have at it and find out.

The last days have been stunning, providing a kind of joyful whiplash for all of us who have gravely worried about the state of the race and the expanding prospect that Trump was careening toward victory. The speed with which the vice president has shifted from a question to a declarative answer about how to defeat Donald Trump has been overwhelming in the best sense.

Don’t doubt that the coming months will harden into a familiar slog. We should expect to confront Republican efforts to define this unifying candidate as a dangerous radical who only got to where she is because Democrats felt pressured to advance a woman and person of color. But the rapidity and clarity with which Harris has leaned into her prosecutorial skill against a felonious nominee bent on turning the country backwards—”I know Donald Trump’s type,” says the former California Attorney General who has prosecuted cases against sexual predators and fraudsters—has been breathtaking. Combine Harris’ prosecutorial acumen with her positive focus on the future, and it’s not hard to see why voters seem relieved and are responding with a level of hope and energy that we have not seen for quite some time.

I also anticipate that the vice president’s deeply moving and genuine relationship with President Biden will provide an emotionally rich vein of support from both reticent Democrats still struggling with the feeling that the president was forced out of the race. Independents, too, have likely been moved by Biden’s patriotic commitment to do whatever is necessary to secure our democracy—even if it means forsaking his personal ambitions.

As I shared Wednesday evening after Biden’s Oval Office address, his opening words summed up the depth of his patriotism in his decision to “pass the torch” to Harris: “I revere this office, but I love my country more. It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it’s more important than any title.”

I suspect you’ve heard or read the exchange with Biden several days ago when Harris met with campaign staff in Delaware. Still recovering from COVID, Biden joined in by phone on speaker. “I’m watching you, kid,” he said. “I love you.” Harris had just shared that her family loves Joe and Jill. Such obvious rapport cannot be faked—and it offers another stark contrast with the previous president whose lovelessness for anyone besides himself is always on display.

In the coming weeks before the Democratic National Convention kicks off on August 19, it will be exciting to watch as Harris chooses a running mate and widens her outreach across the country to stir up increasingly larger audiences. At the moment, amid such remarkable enthusiasm, the truthfulness of Biden’s remarks about stepping aside could not be more evident: “There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices—yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.” The dramatic numbers of people signing up to aid her campaign—including a reported surge of some 60,000 new volunteers in just the first 24 hours—surely underscores the point.

Count me among those with renewed confidence that the Democrats will win in November and overcome the existential danger of a GOP nominee bent on retribution, avoiding criminal accountability and hastening democracy’s demise.

Every time I hear Kamala Harris laugh, I’ll be reminded that she has her mother’s from-the-belly laugh. I’ll take it as a reminder that she is riding the whirlwind, confident in her ability to pull the country forward with joy and optimism. After all, isn’t that what most Americans want?

I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber for $50 a year or just $5 a month, if you’re not already. This helps sustain and expand the work of America, America, keep nearly all the content free for everyone and give you full access to the comments sections.