Harris’s ‘Happy Days’ revival is outshining Trump’s doom and gloom
by Donna Brazile, opinion contributor - 08/15/24 8:30 AM ET
When New York Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to the 1932 Democratic National Convention that nominated him as the party’s presidential candidate, he was introduced with the song “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
There was actually little to be happy about in 1932. America was in the grip of the Great Depression, with high unemployment upending the lives of millions of families, leaving many suffering from hunger and homelessness. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini ruled Italy. Germany was in crisis a year before Adolf Hitler would come to power.
Yet “Happy Days” radiated hope and expectations for better days ahead. Roosevelt adopted it as his campaign theme song and Democrats rallied to it for decades.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) haven’t adopted the nearly 100-year-old song as the theme of their campaign to become our next Democratic president and vice president. Yet “Happy Days” captures their message as well as Roosevelt’s.
While problems continue to face our nation, we can overcome them with good policies and leaders. This will enable our government to create a future of freedom, opportunity and prosperity for millions more Americans.
As in the 1930s — when times were far worse than today — many Americans now feel left out, left behind, unrecognized and disrespected. Harris and Walz send them a message of hope, just as President Roosevelt did to Americans of an earlier generation.
Roosevelt expressed America’s optimistic spirit perfectly when he said in his first Inaugural Address that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Those words inspired Americans to rebuild our economy and win World War II.
When he became president in 1933 and had a supportive Congress controlled by Democrats, Roosevelt improved the lives of Americans in need with programs such as Social Security and unemployment insurance and created an activist government that led the recovery from the Depression.
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https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4825664-harris-walz-campaign-message/
