With evidence that Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) is nervous ahead of his debate with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the “joy” of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is clearer than ever.
It is the same joy that made Walz a shining vice presidential pick. The governor and Harris projected an overly optimistic vision of the country, and the media returned reviews of Walz’s happy and folksy demeanor.
Reports of Walz’s nervousness to debate Vance, however, seem to have dampened the campaign’s joyful image. Walz has good cause to be on edge: He has indicated he is a bad debater, “not a lawyer-debater type” such as Vance, and has already made serious blunders and unclear comments. Most of all, Walz is worried he will disappoint Harris. The race is tight, and she is known to treat staff poorly.
While it prompts some to say the joy is gone, the reality is that Harris’s “joy” is the same as it has been since July. When Harris chose Walz to run with her, it was obvious she picked him for pure optics (and perhaps because she felt at home among his far-left record). And Walz was happy to be subservient.
He has been a compliant accessory all along, of course. It is not surprising to anyone, but his nervousness makes that aspect of his relationship with Harris all the more explicit.
The ecstatic-while-comfortable, charming-yet-dull energy Walz has brought to Harris’s campaign is another identity politics ploy, but one more conniving than just tricking the public into being happy. It is a sort of feigned “joy” that, little by little, convinces its followers toward the radical leftism he and Harris hold, all contained in the frame of one Midwestern white guy.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In an inversion of the Left’s usual condemnation of whiteness, Harris and Walz use the characteristic to present a mode of “fun” and possibility to their constituency. The “joy,” or Walz himself, is “a useful tool to make white people less resistant to change.” The phrasing is uncomfortably similar to something one might hear in the film Am I Racist? because the idea of tricking white voters is pretty much the same.
It is another example of Harris’s deceit. Walz has known it all along, which is why he is nervous now. He can either put the image on full display or let it crumble miserably.