Political pundits of all persuasions are struggling to deal with the explosion of joy in Democratic ranks with Harris’ ascension to the nomination. It didn’t take long for them to start questioning what they claimed was a lack of “policy” coming from the Harris campaign. They warned that it was just not possible for a candidate to hope to ride “joy” all the way to the White House.
This complaint is particularly ironic coming from supporters of the Trump campaign. Because back in 2020, the Republican Convention did not adopt a new party platform; they elected instead to recycle the platform they passed in 2016.
The Democratic Convention adopted its 2024 platform on August 19, 2024. You can read the document online. It is true that candidates are not bound to carry out all the platform promises. But having worked at two conventions, once on the Convention staff and once on the presidential nominee’s staff, I can tell you that the candidates and their representatives are deeply involved in the exhaustive platform-drafting process. This process makes it quite unlikely that the platform will contain any language to which the nominee objects.
But the absence of surprises does not mean the absence of substance. It’s hardly surprising that the platform commits the party “to restoring the reproductive rights Trump ripped away. With a Democratic Congress, we will pass national legislation to make Roe the law of the land again. We will strengthen access to contraception so every woman who needs it is able to get and afford it. We will protect a woman’s right to access IVF. We will repeal the Hyde Amendment…[and] continue to support access to FDA-approved medication abortion, appoint leaders at the FDA who respect science, and appoint judges who uphold fundamental freedoms.”
On climate change, dealing with climate change is a major section of the platform, dealing with issues like farming, environmental justice, tree planting, protecting coastal communities, and building climate resilience.
I could go on. People who say they have no idea what Harris’ policies are should start by reading the platform.
As for keeping “joy” alive through November, and beyond, I turn to one of the three questions on the Citizen Joy homepage: “Harmony: When do you feel in harmony with your fellow citizens.” One of the places where you can find harmony with your fellow citizens is by working on political campaigns to elect people you support. Campaigns need people working together, making phone calls, sending emails, going door-to-door. It’s common for campaign volunteers to make life-long friends from going through the campaign crucible together.
Working for a campaign is one way to send out what Robert Kennedy called “a tiny ripple of hope.” Speaking at the University of Capetown, South Africa on June 6, 1966, Kennedy said, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
I believe that there is joy to be found when you act to send out one of those “tiny ripples of hope.”
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