Harris’ has chosen her DEI vice president. Her pick of Tim Walz rather than Josh Shapiro shows the fear that the democrats have of the pro-Hamas crowd and confidence that the vast majority of Jews will still vote democrat regardless. The democrats take the Jewish vote for granted much like they do for blacks. Shapiro might have helped Harris carry Pennsylvania. Walz will not help carry Minnesota since Minnesota will vote democrat anyway. That Walz can help in the rust belt is debatable in that because of his record, he is not likely to have appeal beyond hard core democrats who are going to vote for Harris anyway. So the only reason for Harris to pick Walz rather than Shapiro is that Walz is not Jewish.
Harris is 59 and Walz is 60 though he looks much older. He is a younger version of Bernie Sanders – who not surprisingly backed him. The Wall Street Journal listed some of his “accomplishments.” Here they are from the August 6th edition:
• Increasing taxes, though Minnesota already has the fifth-highest top income-tax rate among the states, 9.85% at $193,000 of earnings for a single filer. Mr. Walz added a 1% surtax on net investment income above $1 million, while reducing deductions, and the Governor wanted more.
Minnesota is a rare state that still levies a death tax, up to 16%, on top of the federal 40% rate, which is one reason the state is losing taxpayers to better climes.
• Making an estimated 81,000 illegal immigrants in the state eligible for driver’s licenses, along with health insurance through the MinnesotaCare public marketplace.
• Funding “the North Star Promise Program, which provides free college for students with a family income under $80,000,” including illegal immigrants.
• Creating a state system for paid family and medical leave, capped at a combined 20 weeks a year and funded by a 0.88% payroll tax.
• Mandating that public utilities generate 80% carbon-free electricity by 2030, ramping up to 100% by 2040. He’s a fervent believer in “climate action.”
• Subsidizing electric vehicles by “requiring EV charging infrastructure within or adjacent to new commercial and multi-family buildings,” as the Governor’s office bragged.
• Passing one of the nation’s most permissive abortion statutes that has essentially no limits and no age consideration for minors.
• Declaring Minnesota to be a “trans refuge,” with a law saying that the state will ignore a “court order for the removal of a child issued in another state because the child’s parent or guardian assisted the child in receiving gender-affirming care in this state.”
• Establishing automatic voter registration and letting Minnesotans sign up for a permanent absentee ballot option.
So much like Trump’s pick of JD Vance (nee: “Little Trump”), Harris has picked Little Bernie. I said previously that Trump obviously felt that Vance would help him in the Rust Belt states and didn’t see the need to broaden his appeal to non republican voters. Else he would have picked Nikki Haley – remember JFK picked LBJ – or Tim Scott. People one said that Biden’s pick of Harris meant that there was a possibility – however faint – that Harris might become president. Well that possibility is faint no longer. If Trump were elected and did not serve out his full term – remember he is 78 – then we would get a president Vance. Do you really want JD Vance as president? I don’t. But I don’t want a president Walz either. And you thought a Trump-Biden or a Trump-Hillary or a Trump-Harris race was a conundrum? A Vance-Walz campaign would produce a president worse than any of the above. How in the world do we now have a political system that produces these awful choices of deciding to vote for who you think will do less damage to the country?
haroldblackphd.com 