COMMENTARY: Hope endorses joy: A triumph of style over substance

The Democratic presidential ticket’s watchword is the thematic term: joy.

When the news broke, I thought of an episode of “Hogan’s Heroes” in which Col. Klink was reminiscing about his pre-war outings with the Nazi program “Strength Through Joy.” The program was pure propaganda that promoted Nazism and monitored dissident and anti-state behavior.

Who said you couldn’t learn anything from a sitcom?

Barack Obama was once the Democrats’ “hope” candidate and Kamala Harris is their “joy” nominee. Hope and joy are not campaign slogans but rather Christmas words.

What is there to be joyful about? Let’s count the ways.

Joy is someone else paying your student loan and your mortgage down payment. Joy is a universal income and does not have to work for free health care. Joy is more debt, inflation with increased oversight and regulation. Joy means high energy prices and power outages. Joy is eliminating the filibuster and packing the Supreme Court. Joy entails public school indoctrination and unrestrained illegal migration, with no police or prisons. Joy is knowing Planned Parenthood has a mobile bus offering free abortions and vasectomies. Joy is higher food and gas prices and tens of millions of undocumented aliens and drugs flooding the border. Joy is taxing unrealized capital gains while supporting a wealth tax.

What’s not to like?

The most memorable Democratic National Convention moment was opening night when President Joe Biden yelled for all to embrace the joy that you could bottle and wash your dishes with it.

Harris’ campaign slogan might surprise her innumerable staff members who left her employ, overdosing on all the joy. Perhaps reporters should interview them.

The Democrats plan to ride the wave of obfuscation into the White House as their allies work the oars and sails.

Three months ago, if someone said Harris would own the top of the Democratic ticket, they would have been laughed at, Kamala-style on steroids. The worst president in modern history has passed the baton to an even worse candidate. Her meteoric rise is totally fabricated, forced and fake. Yet, this inept and awkward vice president is somehow the most qualified, the most wonderful and the most inspiring figure in politics.

Obama was created into a celebrity where accomplishments, intelligence and work ethic were irrelevant. Now, it is Harris who will save democracy despite not winning one primary. It’s all counterfeit, resembling a high school popularity contest. All the while, the mindless masses continue to digest this narrative hook, line and joy.

Making joy a virtue of frivolity was the highlight at the Democrats’ kumbaya convention. Subsisting on vibes rather than substance.

The last thing Democrats want is the issues front and center, believing the formula: “personality plus policy equals joy” is enough to keep the White House. As Robert Kennedy Jr. recently said, “Who needs policies when you have Trump to hate?”

Those who think Harris is making the calls on policy are the same as those who think Biden has full mental acuity. Biden was “sharp as a tack” before they (including Harris) couldn’t hide it.

Yet, Kama-chameleon and her cheerleaders joyfully run away from everything they have stood for. Ignorance is bliss. It is also Harris’ foremost strategy.

Accepting the nomination as a cackling caricature of the Wicked Witch of the West draped in mournful black does not project joy but is a ghoulish facsimile that underscores a campaign out for blood. Harris’ constant crackling does not perceive optimism but of mental limitations — the notorious giggling fool — the epitome of style over substance.

Can you feel the joy?

Instead, that is your wallet being emptied.

If you haven’t figured it out, the Harris campaign of J.O.Y. is precisely an acronym: Joke’s On You.

Greg Maresca is a columnist and satirist in Flyover, Pa. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.