A Tale of Two VP Running Mates:
Fantastic Pick by Harris & More Buyer's Remorse for Trump.
Feel free to check the entire blog archives from “Political Pulse” & “Salzillo Report” on the 2024 primary cycle, rural outreach, redistricting litigation, base dynamics, campaign organization, the current media landscape, the issues at stake, Project 2025, Build Back Better, the progressive movement, the true story about former 2024 VP contender Gina Raimondo, and much more.
We now know Vice President Harris’s running mate pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. It is a strategically smart pick on so many grounds.
Trump and his bandwagon can criticize Governor Walz all they want. Obviously, they can’t do it on any specific issues that people are more than willing to hear out, so they have to stick to the same tired personal smears and slogans. Vice President Harris, so they say, has “buckled” to the “far-left, pro-Hamas wing” of the Democratic Party.
That seems like a strange line of argument. Remember when Republicans thought they could pull off a win this year in Minnesota? Well, the majority of Minnesota voters supported their Governor Tim Walz twice—including many Trump 2016 voters in the state. And in the same Southern Minnesota congressional district that Trump later won twice by more than 10 points, the voters apparently did not think Congressman Walz was too radical to represent them in the House of Representatives. Because he served them for 12 years there (2007-2019).
The reality will speak for itself, and will drown out the bluff and bluster. Trump will come to regret that VP Harris selected Tim Walz as her running mate. Just as much as Trump regrets that he chose JD Vance to be his running mate.
A vice presidential pick means much more than a state, as important as Minnesota can be just to hold onto in the Harris column. Joe Biden wasn’t picked as Barack Obama’s running mate just to secure Delaware’s 3 electoral votes, that’s for sure. Yet, as we all know well, Obama’s pick paid off handsomely in both 2008 and 2012, as Biden turned out to be a great governing partner. Just ask Paul Ryan how it went for him.
I’m really looking forward to this year’s vice presidential debate, especially now that Trump has chickened out of the 2nd presidential debate. The battle of the VPs may be our only way to truly compare the two very different visions at hand.
And—unlike in the Republican Party—all of the other VP contenders, Roy Cooper included, are very talented. Again, unlike the Republican Party, the Democratic Party has a very strong bench of leadership and an almost endless cast of rising stars (partly because we don’t believe in a personal cult).
Look no further than Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with him on every issue (and there are a few areas of disagreement like on fracking and criminal justice cases). But he is a passionate, hardworking public servant who has been ahead of the curve on a more than a few issues, such as pension investments, Catholic Church sexual abuse investigations, and in criticizing Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza conflict. Also a tremendous speaker. I look forward to seeing Josh Shapiro continue the trend started by Tim Walz, Tony Evers, and Gretchen Whitmer in building a Midwestern progressive agenda for working families and the middle class to counter the vision we see in leaders like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis.
(For the few Anti-Semites and pro-Hamas people out there opposing Shapiro, you will be disappointed to know that your Anti-Semitism has no place in the Democratic Party. If you are an anti-Semitic bigot, I suggest you join the Nick Fuentes-Kanye West fan club instead).
But I digress. Since we now know who our VP pick is, let’s take a closer look at who the other side’s VP pick is. JD Vance represents the worst of Ivy League contempt for both working class people and for “Hillbillies.” His “Hillbilly Elegy” is only the most obvious example of that. While he does tell a compelling personal story, with a fascinating cast of characters, the book’s main message was a message that rightly upset many in his hometown of Jackson, Kentucky.
In that book, Vance unfortunately blamed the struggles of the people in Appalachia—and the struggles of the white working class more generally—on their “lack of personal responsibility.” To fix their problems, he claimed, they ultimately had to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and take responsibility for their decisions. Oh, here we go again with the same Republican talking points that got us to the place where we are today.
That was the type of talk that the rich used to justify the poverty of those that live in Rural America, the Rust Belt, the Black Belt, and the Rio Grande Valley. “Lack of personal responsibility?” What did personal responsibility have to do with the decisions of Republican presidents like Reagan to veto farmers relief bills? What did personal responsibility have to do with the rise of large agribusinesses, and government policies that harmed small farmers? And what did personal responsibility have to do with the scores of Americans who got lost in the shuffle of a transformed global economy?
That is why the current mayor of Vance’s old hometown of Jackson, Kentucky has constantly touted government assistance as a central lifeline since the decline of the local economy—particularly during the pandemic and the two catastrophic floods in 2021 and 2022 which plagued Eastern Kentucky. Politicians like that mayor understand government’s critical role in helping down-on-their-luck Americans.
Unfortunately, this is not how the Republican Party sees it. People like Vance have little sympathy for down-on-their-luck Americans. Once they reach the top, they care very little for the people at the bottom. Vance is much of the same. His “Hillbilly Elegy” was criticized for stereotyping the very same people Republicans claim to be fighting for today.
Nowadays, Vance has used his connections and privileges to manipulate the working class to vote against their interests. He has cozied up to tech billionaires like Peter Thiel to gain political power. And, worst of all, the same man who once told rural America to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” now styles himself a phony champion of the working class.
JD Vance does not represent middle America. He is a disgusting chameleon and charlatan. The Democratic Party of Joe Biden is the only party that truly cares about the working class. No, JD Vance, the hard working people of distressed communities across this country are not lazy and dependent “hillbillies.” They are not asking you and your rich friends for a handout. All they ask for is a hand up.
Governor Walz is the true populist VP in this race. Get ready for the next 90 days everyone.