Joyous Politics

There's a whole new emotion that we haven’t seen in politics for a long time– joy.

Before Joe Biden pulled out of the presidential race the election was a choice between two candidates that many Americans didn’t want; and the spirit of this election was mostly fear, anger, and despair. But the big rally we just watched in Philadelphia, with the new Democratic team of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, portrayed an electric energy that was new. The feeling that we saw in the cheering crowd of 12,000 people at Temple University and the spirit beaming across the country was a whole new emotion that we haven’t seen in politics for a long time– joy.

In the final weeks of the Biden campaign, we were all caught up in a series of agonizing questions: Would the aging president step aside for a new candidate? When? Would VP Harris be the logical pick and was she up to it? Would America ever elect a Black woman as President? Would there be an open Democratic convention? Would the polling numbers change with any different candidate? Would anybody have the power to win, with so much ambivalence and apathy all around, especially with younger voters? 

When cynicism sets in, the ”strong men” often win and become the dictators that Trump wants to be. But would the clarity of the moral and historic choices at hand break through?

Then Biden made the bold and admirable decision to step aside 

Vice President Harris quickly gathered tremendous support, a great surge of enthusiasm, and even a renewal of passion in politics that has surprised many of us. And it hasn't stopped. The Trump lead in the polls has already been erased and the momentum continues to rise. It seems less about policy debates, but more about a desire for a positive, open, inclusive, and more civil future; rather than going back to the narrow past and angry grievances that Trump’s resentments have awakened and invoked.

Then Vice President Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate.

Walz is truly a midwest guy, a high school teacher and football coach in rural America who won a Congressional seat that hadn’t been held by a Democrat since 1893 after his students persuaded him to run. He is a pragmatist who wants to solve problems. Now Republicans are attacking Walz for his “left” agenda as Governor. But what they are talking about are things like free breakfast and lunch for all school kids in the public schools in his state and extended family leave for workers. That’s a debate we can certainly have. 

The best line Walz has offered was to name Donald Trump and his VP candidate JD Vance  as “really weird guys.” It simply and perfectly captures the reality that they are, deep down, just weird people espousing weird, as well as dangerous ideas. 

But as funny and accurate as that line is, and as weird and laughable as much of what they say and do is, Trump and Vance still pose an existential threat to democracy.

There is a real battle for the soul of the nation ahead now, in a newly competitive presidential race. We need to harness this new energy and enthusiasm to commit ourselves to do everything we can in the next few months to protect, strengthen, and expand democracy in this country.

In my hometown of Detroit this week, Governor Tim Walz, a Lutheran layperson, said we need to be “joyful warriors.” Amen to that.

I am on vacation for a few weeks now with my family. And I am going to take a break from Substack for those weeks. It’s a good and necessary time for some personal rest and preparation for what will be a very busy fall. And family time is always so sustaining for me.

I have many public gatherings coming in battleground states in the critical weeks leading up to the election, turning my False White Gospel book events into town meetings on faith and democracy with local leaders involved.

I also finished a study guide of the book for pastors and leaders in local churches for group study and for pastors to preach on successive Sundays from the key iconic biblical texts examined and reflected on for each book chapter–and what those texts and teachings of Jesus mean for a time like this. The Study Guide for The False White Gospel can be found here.

I hope it will be helpful to many of you clergy and church leaders as we navigate this testing time for both democracy and for faith. I will pick up my God’s Politics Substack column and my Soul of the Nation podcasts soon. I hope you are all getting some time for rest and refreshment this summer. Get ready for the fall!

Check out the brand new companion study guide for The False White Gospel here.