Kurt Meyer writes a weekly column for the Nora Springs – Rockford Register and the Substack newsletter Showing Up, where this essay first appeared. He served as chair of the executive committee (the equivalent of board chair) of Americans for Democratic Action, America’s most experienced liberal organization.
You’re invited to time travel with me today, to April 1968, fifty-six years ago. Newspaper headlines on April 1 said President Lyndon Johnson won’t seek reelection. Some might have thought it was an April Fool prank. A much bigger jolt came April 4, with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The number of Marines in Vietnam peaked just under 86,000. Tragically, U.S. fatalities in Vietnam also crested in 1968, almost 30 percent of all American battle deaths happening that year. And, after 249 shows, the final episode of the Andy Griffith Show aired. Bucolic Mayberry seemed strangely out of synch with what was going on in America.
On April 27, 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey formally declared his candidacy for president. The second paragraph of his announcement:
Here we are, just as we ought to be, here we are, the people, here we are the spirit of dedication, here we are the way politics ought to be in America, the politics of happiness, politics of purpose, politics of joy; and that’s the way it’s going to be, all the way, too, from here on out.
Geez, Hubert, read the room… or, more essentially, the national mood at an unusually tumultuous time. Less than six weeks after Humphrey’s announcement, Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. “Law and order” surfaced, not as a TV program but as a major political issue, along with an unsustainable course in Vietnam. The politics of joy was swiftly overwhelmed by the politics of fear and loathing, of division and anger.
Now, after five-plus decades, joy resurfaces! “Joy” joins “weird,” tossed into the campaign blender. Seasoning and spice, not meaningful nutrition. Yet perhaps providing the essential flavor and fragrance needed to lure voters toward one particular ticket.
The Democratic National Convention referenced the long, painful wait. U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, said in his speech, “In the Old Testament Book of Psalms, the scripture tells us that weeping may endure during the long night, but joy will come in the morning.”
Reverend Al Sharpton: “We’ve endured January 6, we’ve endured conspiracy theories, we’ve endured lies and areas of darkness but if we stay together—Black, white, Latino, Asian, Indian-American—if we stay together, joy, joy, joy, joy coming in the morning.”
U.S. Senator Cory Booker, at a news conference on the final day of the convention: “It’s almost like weeping has endured through the night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
It seems these men know their Hebrew Scriptures Psalms (although they may just be parroting one another).
Journalists generally hedged their bets. Peter Baker, writing after the convention in the New York Times: “Joy cometh in the morning, but so do hangovers.” His New York Times colleague, Patrick Healy, wrote in an opinion column:
If the Democratic convention’s message for America had to fit on a bumper sticker, it would read, “Harris is joy.” […]
But joy is not a political strategy. […] Americans want her to lower their household costs and make it easier to find housing. Being our joyful Momala is not going to win the election.
Given all this joy talk–and the Minnesota Governor now a national candidate–the Minnesota Star Tribune contacted Samuel Freedman, author of Into the Bright Sunshine, an exceptional book about Humphrey’s civil rights efforts. He told the newspaper,
What we’re dealing with now is the rehabilitation and redemption of a phrase that Humphrey on one hand embraced and also regretted. […]
When he used that phrase the politics of joy, it landed like an anvil in the context of all the problems America was going through in 1968. […] He had a great intuitive sense of where the public was at, but in this case he just misread the mood. […]
Fifty-six years later and a lot of the public is ravenous for the idea that joy can come back into politics. Now it feels like a tonic to a lot of people.
Vice President Humphrey mentioned joy once in his announcement speech. In her convention speech, Vice President Harris didn’t mention joy at all. She didn’t need to; others are carrying the joy theme forward.
We’ll see soon if this message is sustained or superseded by more urgent matters. Having studied HHH extensively, I think Hubert would be amused and impressed… dare I say overcome with joy at this recent turn of events.
Top photo of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris in August 2024 was posted on the candidates’ social media.