YOUR BUSINESS IS REJOICING.

Last night's surprise celebrity guest at Chicago's Democrat Convention was local lady Oprah Winfrey.  Power Line's Steven Hayward was underwhelmed.  "Oprah? I thought billionaires weren’t welcome at the DNC. The least she could have done is say, 'And you get joy! And YOU get joy! Everyone gets joy!'"

I watched the convention so you didn't have to.  It is worth remembering exactly what genuine tyranny is.

I've fast-forwarded it to 13:49 where the sheep bleat.  The whole "joy" schtick puts me in mind of a socialist artist's response to just criticism.  "All that's missing is some Shostakovich music and somebody beating them with a stick and repeating, 'Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing.'"

Here we go.  The movement lasts about eleven minutes, let it play as you scroll, and make sure you are rejoicing.

What did I say about Inside the Beltway being establishmentarian?  James Joyner's business is rejoicing.  "Harris is fun and 'memeable.'"  No doubt she was fun for Willie Brown.  Memeable?  Your mileage may vary.

Pajamas Media's Stephen Kruiser is closer to the mark.  "Leave it to the Democrats to completely suck the joy out of joyfulness."

Town Hall contributor Ben Shapiro also catches the authoritarian vibe.

Donald Trump, we are told, is a candidate of darkness and revenge. JD Vance, his vice presidential candidate, is "weird" and authoritarian. Why can't they feel the joy?

In fact, why don't you feel the joy? Is something wrong with you? Why can't you bob your head to Beyonce's "Freedom" while Kamala dances and Tim Walz pastes on a smile so broad it would turn Jack Nicholson's Joker green with envy? Do you hate joy?

All of this is, to put it mildly, slightly sinister.

It is one thing to demand that Americans vote for a candidate for the presidency on the basis of her policies, or even on the basis of her opponent's supposed unworthiness. It is another to demand that we feel the joy.  It reeks of authoritarians of the past, all of whom suggested that the failures of their policies were not failures of leadership, but failure of the people to change their hearts of stone for hearts of flesh. It is not a coincidence that Joseph Stalin's propaganda posters routinely featured small children gazing adoringly up at him, with the slogan emblazoned, "We Are Warmed By Stalin's Affection!"

Shout hurrah! Clap your hands!

Coerced, er, curated joy is a totalitarian tactic of long standing.

Hitler offered free vacations to members of the German Labour Front with the slogan, "Strength Through Joy!" (One legacy of "Strength Through Joy" was the German "People's Car," later to be known as the Volkswagen Beetle.)

Authoritarians demand emotional fealty, not merely political fealty.

When we're joyful, we're strong!

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go!

This doesn't mean that Kamala Harris is a Stalinist, Maoist or Nazi (although members of the radical Democratic Party base seem to be warm toward aspects of all three regimes). It does mean that authoritarianism papers over its totalitarian policies with the soothing platitudes of paternalism and maternalism, and demands that you sacrifice the true joys in life -- family, church, community -- in favor of a Big Brother. Or, in the case of Kamala Harris, a Big Mother.

Just feel the joy. And stop asking questions.

Ruy "Liberal Patriot" Teixeira, however, did not get the memo.

When Democrats are feeling frisky, they would do well to remember this. Most of their activists live and work in environments where they are surrounded by other college-educated voters as do most of those who cover and write about politics. Their universe is different from that of working-class voters; what plays so well in their college-educated bubble does not typically play nearly as well in the universe inhabited by working class voters.

Four legs good, two legs baaaaad!

Mr Teixeira offers a further caution.

Of course, the selection of Tim Walz as Harris’s running mate is supposed to help the Democrats claw back some of that lost working-class support. Besides the obvious point that vice-presential picks typically don’t matter much, this seems doubtful given his own electoral record in Minnesota, where his support as governor has skewed toward highly-educated metro areas.

Indeed, even granting Walz the sincerity of his advocacy on economic issues, he fits quite comfortably into the Democrats’ current Brahmin populism.

There was no point, given the correlation of forces in Congress when the Blue Falcon represented that median voter district near the Iowa border, in holding him to the policy preferences of the San Francisco Democrats.

That Brahmin populism?

Hey, what can I say?  ¿Que mala? is "memeable."