Democrats are strong on abortion. And Trump gave them an opportunity on immigration.

There has been a tendency among Democrats to get exasperated at the American people for not voting their material interests — for policies that would help them better their conditions. They wonder (as the title of a book raising the concern goes) “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” but what they really mean is, “What’s the Matter with America?”

In recent years, however, a growing body of scholarship has shown that people don’t tend to vote rationally, but rather use voting to express themselves in emotional, ideological and moral ways. This view of human behavior, which I would associate with scholars such as Daniel Kahneman and Jonathan Haidt, sees elections as involving a great deal of intangible intuition and passion. Voters choose from the gut and then rationalize their choice, consciously or not. Kamala Harris’s campaign seems premised on this latter, intuition-based approach.

Ever since the vice president became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, Harris has run a remarkably focused and disciplined campaign, one that seems deliberately light on substance and high on feelings. You don’t see the dozens of policy papers that were a hallmark of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Harris has not yet given extensive interviews or done news conferences which would force her to detail her positions on specific issues. Instead, she has introduced herself to the American people in entirely human terms, presenting herself as a dynamic, warm, funny and optimistic person. It’s heavy on vibes, and, so far, it seems to be working.

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Her running mate pick follows the same pattern. The practical choice would have been Josh Shapiro, the smart, effective and popular governor of the swing state with the most electoral votes. Instead, she chose the governor of a bluer state — but one who projects an image that has resonated throughout the country: a folksy, affable, kindhearted man. The Tim Walz pick reminds us that, sometimes, EQ is as important as IQ.

This is a turning of the tables. Donald Trump and the Republicans have tended to be masters of the politics of emotion, emphasizing strength and evoking fear. But for now, Harris’s hopefulness — the sense of “joy” that Walz speaks of on the campaign trail — appears to be dominating.

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There is also a turning of the tables in another sense. In every presidential election over the past three decades until 2020, the Democrats, now the party of the college-educated class, nominated someone who had a degree from........

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