ArcaMax

With one word, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz changed the public conversation: "joy." That word stumped and trumped former President Donald Trump's brand of rage. He looks fit to be tied in that very long red tie.

When Walz joined Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate, he thanked her for bringing back the joy in politics. He added, the one thing he will not forgive Trump's MAGA crowd: "They try and steal the joy."

Poor Donald has met more than his match in the political arena, and I think he knows it. He can't push around this hearty guy, who's been around the block as a teacher, soldier, hunter and congressman. There's talk that Trump has lost it. How delightful.

Men from the Upper Midwest are known to speak few words but get straight to the point. Walz's other well-chosen word, which entered the parlance, is "weird," for Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, fond of quoting Richard Nixon. Somehow that word stuck, too, for the Republican ticket.

Joy -- or joie de vivre -- is what Paris brought to tout le monde -- all the world -- with the most elegant, awe-inspiring Olympics ever, enlivening the artful architecture of the City of Light. Visions of a large sunlit balloon, the summer gardens, the river Seine, the bells of Notre Dame and, bien sur, the Eiffel Tower transformed an athletic competition into much more. Human endeavor in music, the arts (and Tom Cruise) lifted the Games to another plane. C'est magnifique.

The Olympics -- and the American performances -- went well with the sea change here at home in a perfect chord. Judging by the groundswell of enthusiasm and large turnouts for Harris-Walz rallies, they are quenching a hunger for positive energy in politics.

Walz's simple statements stick the landing for a nation battered by Trump's insults, lies and boasts since 2015. He trades on tearing people down and unleashing the dogs of war within. By now, we've reached a breaking point. Enough!

On Jan. 6, we witnessed a white supremacist mob storm the Capitol to overturn his lost election. Trump egged them on, or "you're not going to have a country anymore." That culminated a campaign of hate talk, bringing out the worst in human nature to advance a personal ego-driven agenda. With Trump, it's always nakedly personal, never about how to improve people's lot in life.

The 45th president, who lost the popular vote twice, should have been arrested and locked up long before he could try these violent tactics again. There's little doubt he'll try to seize power by any means necessary -- when foul is fair.

The contrast could not be clearer. Walz is the real deal. He could be your neighbor, coach or someone you turn to if you're a gay kid who needs you to lend an ear. Coming from a Wisconsin family, I'm familiar with the character type: open, decent, inclusive. He'll shore up voters in at least two battleground states, neighbors Wisconsin and Michigan.

Growing up, I heard the words "common good" all the time. And now we're hearing it from Walz. How refreshing.

Out on the campaign trail, Harris seems relaxed and confident after acing her first tests since President Joe Biden stepped away from the race and endorsed her. She's come into her own, and rising poll numbers show it.

Now we come to Trump's mental state of desperation. In capital letters, he accused the Harris-Walz team of faking crowd sizes, which are a special sore spot for him.

Worse, he declared with a straight face that his Jan. 6 mob of 30,000 was a larger crowd size than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s grand total of 250,000 marchers who heard the "I Have a Dream" speech.

Worst of all, nobody in the press pack demanded to know if Trump had the nerve to compare himself to King's majestic oratory. This is a sign of how beaten down they are by covering a world of weirdness.

Dan Rather, the news warhorse, commented, "(Harris and Walz) seem to have broken the spell of negativity. Rays of sunshine rather than dark clouds are the order of the day."

It's summer in America.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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