Joy Resurfaces...
But will it last?
You’re invited to time travel with me today, to April, 1968, fifty-six years ago. Newspaper headlines on April 1 said President 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 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 convention referenced the long, painful wait. Representative Hakeem Jeffries: “In the Old Testament Book of Psalms, scripture tells us that weeping may endure during the long night, but joy will come in the morning.” Reverand Al Sharpton: “We’ve endured lies and areas of darkness but… if we stay together, joy, joy, joy, joy coming in the morning.” Senator Cory Booker, post-convention: “It’s almost like weeping has endured through the night, but joy cometh in the morning.” It seems these men know their Old Testament 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 NYT colleague, Patrick Healy: “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: “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. (Humphrey) had a great intuitive sense of where the public was at, but in this case, he just misread the mood. Fifty-six years later, 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.
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Humphrey's misread of the country, was also a misread of the politics that doomed his candidacy. The Democratic Party was all in for expanding the war in Vietnam believing that Lyndon Johnson was right, even though he was spouting he didn't want no "damned Dien Bien Phu ", on his watch after the Tet Offensive of 1968. His walking away from the Presidency spoke volumes of his lack of faith he could keep that from happening. Nixon read the tea leaves correctly, but failed miserably at "Peace with Honor" yet won the election on that "promise". Statesmanship has been confused by power and money for so long, I sincerely doubt that as a policy it is workable; it fails the test of accomplishing much of anything beyond prolonging or starting new wars, and transfering huge piled of tax dollars into the hands of the "Military Industrial Complex". Today, large amounts of people are so frustrated with politics they no longer see us as a democracy. They have turned inward trying to cover their own ass by not wanting to have anything to do with foreign policy, or immigration (a festering problem created largely from our meddling in the politics of other countries.( for raw materials and other essentials for our own needs), There is a huge glut of people who have turned off their ability to even help the poor in this country that have deep roots in racism and predjudice. Most of this has always been there, but when things tighten beyond the belt and go straight for the neck of the vast majority of tax payers, they resent the money they are paying in are going elsewhere, even it it is for the good of others in this country! The question is more, "Where is mine?" and "What the hell am I paying for?" than concern for "Joy".