Why "Hope and Joy" is a Stronger Message than "Hope and Change"
This time around we could be in for a longer lasting political movement
When Barack Obama ran for President in 2008, I’ll admit, I was skeptical. I wasn’t skeptical that he would win. It seemed likely that he was going to be popular and win fairly big, and he did—he trounced Republican John McCain by almost 200 electoral votes.
What I was skeptical of was his message, which could be summed up by his campaign themes “Hope and Change”, embodied by the slogan “Change we can believe in.” The themes of “Hope and Change” were everywhere: signs, speeches, ads, etc. It wasn’t a bad message. Really, for the times it was great. America had just been through eight years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and the post-9/11 quagmires caused by paranoid hysteria. This was basically like the Trump era before Trump. It was hard to see America getting much crazier than that. Little did we know. It now all seems so cute and quaint, like a corncob doll you might see in an historical American home museum.
“Hope and Change” was a great message at the right time. I can’t quibble with that. Campaign advisor David Axelrod, now a CNN commentator, famously promoted that sentiment in order to win, and it worked.
My skepticism was always that it seemed to promise something that was probably out of reach: actual, long-lasting political “change”. You could describe me as a bit of an eye-roller, but one that was happy to move on into a new era. I was, and still am, a politics junkie, so I understood the power of a good message and slogan. This was a good one. I just didn’t think a whole lot would really “change”. I felt the “hope” was good, the “change” was bleh.
And I think I was mostly right. Sure, it can be debated what “change” really meant, but I took it to mean a change in the overall tenor of government, perhaps a more unifying and bipartisan attitude to get things done for regular Americans. Sound familiar? As I’m saying, not much has actually changed.
In fact, if anything, it has gotten quite a bit worse. Rageful opposition has been in ascension. Republicans, led by Senate Minority/Majority Leader Mitch McConnell convinced a large portion of America that Obama was the most divisive president in history. He wasn’t, of course; in fact, he governed mildly. He often was conciliatory to a fault. But Republicans like to be enraged. Some ultra-right MAGA personalities still actively blame Obama for….whatever they think America’s problems are today.
What we have today is a bit of a redo from 2008. The sentiments are similar. As I said earlier, the Bush Administration was basically the Trump administration of its day. But the hopeful change of that day was very short-lived, it lasted for a couple years at the most, with a few major policy-driven legislative victories (the Affordable Care Act for example). But then it faded into the background, giving way to more bickering and rage, as all of Washington, D.C.’s ever-present dysfunctions festered and grew, getting worse and worse over time.
Obama did win again in 2012, but with a narrowed electoral college victory, and the Republicans eventually overtook the rest of national government, along with key state governments, solidifying new-age conservatism as the most powerful political force in America.
Looking back, instead of sitting around waiting and hoping things would change, Democrats could have been even bolder in their policy initiatives and rhetoric in fighting back against the up-and-coming hate caucus that was simmering in the Republican Party. If the Republicans were going to have such an emotional backlash to the generally moderate things Democrats did and said, Democrats might as well have gone all-in with a robust liberal agenda.
This time around, we can learn from those years. If Kamala Harris wins big, and Democrats take over the House majority and maintain a narrow Senate majority, we should know and understand that there will not be an immediate call to bipartisanship and cooperation in government. Things aren’t really going to “change”. The opposition party will always be in the opposition, no matter who is in power. There will be strong voices in the Republican Party that will blow up anything Democrats try to do as a scandalous affront to the country.
And this is why the message of “Hope and Joy” will resonate better than “Hope and Change”. Americans should be hardened realists by now. We know many things about our politics probably won’t change, or if they do, it will be slow and barely noticeable as it’s happening. “Change” connotes something to be achieved, a goal to try and reach. But having this goal also implies that if it’s not achieved, it will be a failure, something to be disappointed about.
“Joy” is an eternal emotion, not a goal. If you’re going to govern, then just do your work and do it with joy. Don’t do it because you think America is a vermin-infested hellscape. Do it because you want people to be happy, you want them to feel that government is working for them, not for a loud, wealthy, angry subset of the population.
With “Joy”, you get a constant motivator that can eventually result in actual change. But the great thing about it is you’re not promising change. If it comes it comes. You’re promising a way of feeling about life, about politics….about America. You’ll pass legislation that corresponds to these feelings. Maybe the legislation doesn’t work as expected; but at least you tried and did it with a genuine empathy and a smile on your face.
Sure, one can be skeptical of joy, but only in its genuineness, not in its execution. As long as the leaders of this movement are actually joyful, it will work. It’s something that can exist now, not something you have to cross your fingers about, hoping it comes to fruition.
Joy is a repellant to cynical obstructionism. When the barrage of Republican attacks ensue, so what? Just keep joyfully doing what you think is best for the country. You were elected after all. Maybe you won’t get elected next time, but at least you tried your best and did what you thought was right. And generally, voters like joy and optimism over hate and vengefulness. You’ll probably get elected next time.
In this way, “Joy” is a better message than “Change”. You can only get so much mileage out of a promise of “Change”. The mileage you get with “Joy” is eternal and fully in the control of the joyful. The main question with joy is how long can you sustain it? Can it stay standing up to the forces that will try to destroy it?
We’re about to find out.
But there is no question that governing with joy would be real change.
Thank you! May this continue!
Good piece, Thinker! One thing about joy is: it's in the present moment, right now. Not in some hoped-for future. To get there, we can say to ourselves: "I am in a state of joy through all I see before me." Then watch as the joy spreads out from inside us to the people we see before us. It works.