Walz Wields Weird

One more thing for Donald to worry about

Good luck attacking this.

Tim Walz is a normal American who cares about helping other Americans. He believes, for example, that feeding children breakfast and lunch at school—free of charge—is a good thing to do even if the kids’ parents aren’t rich.

You can see why Donald is terrified. 

Because his criteria for a running mate included somebody who would lick his boots, subjugate himself, and exhibit the kind of cruel weirdness that Donald, and the base of the Republican Party, revel in. Vice President Kamala Harris picked someone who has executive and actually wants to work to make the lives of Americans better. 

Choosing Tim Walz was so pitch perfect, it’s no wonder Republicans were confused after the announcement Tuesday morning. They screamed that Walz is a scary liberal and a socialist just like Kamala Harris. This is what they do all of the time, of course, but such attacks against the rural hunter and Midwest dad are incredibly tone deaf. And weird.

Even JD Vance seems to know this. When asked by reporters Tuesday if there are any similarities between him and Walz, Vance said simply, “We’re white guys from the Midwest.” 

Did anybody ask when Vance chose to be white? I thought not.

“I guess there are similarities there,” Vance said. “But what’s different is the actual ideas about how best to serve people.”

It’s odd to agree with J.D. Vance, but, yes: Whereas Tim Walz thinks it’s a bad thing for school children to go hungry, Donald and his running mate think feeding them is socialism.

In an email sent after the announcement, Donald’s campaign wrote that Walz would be “even worse” for the country than Harris. “HE’S THAT BAD. He’ll unleash HELL ON EARTH and open our borders to the worst criminals imaginable.”

I hope Donald keeps this up. He’s creating a caricature of Walz that has no basis in reality and these attacks are not going to resonate with anybody except those of his followers who are still in thrall to, as opposed to heartily sick of, Donald’s apocalyptic vision of America.

In the Trump campaigns first statement after the addition of Walz to the Harris ticket, Walz was described as a “dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.” If you read the whole thing it points out that Walz supports allowing convicted felons the right to vote. You’d think this would appeal to Donald, but the catch is the felons voting rights will only be restored if they actually serve their time. Donald and the Republicans only want convicted felons to be able to run for president—not vote.

The harsh reality that Donald and J.D. are facing right now is that, at least so far, they are losing to Harris. With Walz entering the race, they’re now up against a ticket with true cross-demographic and regional appeal, one that’s much more likely to get the vote out than somebody who posts delusional stream of consciousness rants on Truth Social and is still trying to convince people that the imprisoned January 6^th traitors are heroes.

Walz is the Democrat’s answer to the bizarrely un-American construction of “Real America” that Republicans have been shoving down our throats since at least Sarah Palin. Walz taught high school social studies and coached football; he served as a congressman in a rural district of Minnesota for six terms. The idea that the guy whose daddy made him a millionaire by the time he was a toddler and who now splits his time between a gold-plated penthouse and a golf club once owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post knows anything about working- and middle-class workers, let alone more than Tim Walz, is laughable.

Walz is also a veteran who spent 24 years in the Army National Guard before retiring as a command sergeant major, which made him the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress when he was elected to the House in 2007. While Walz didn’t see combat like Vance did, he also isn’t running with a draft dodger who calls our nation’s wounded and fallen “suckers” and “losers.” 

And then there is Walz’s personal experience with the kind of reproductive freedoms that Donald and, especially his counterpart want to end. 

Walz and his wife Gwen have two children conceived through IVF and he is a vocal proponent of the procedure. During a recent appearance on MSNBC he said, “Thank God for IVF, my wife and I have two beautiful children. [Vance] thinks he needs to dictate that. I don’t need [Vance] to tell me about my family. I don’t need him to tell me about my wife’s healthcare and her reproductive rights.”

Many Americans have similarly made use of IVF—and suffered the pain and potential heartbreak of those experiences. Donald and J.D. Vance support policies and people who would endanger access to IVF. The Alabama state Supreme Court’s ruling that IVF is unconstitutional was made possible by the corrupt illegitimate Supreme Court Donald takes credit for having manufactured. Vance voted against legislation that would protect access to IVF, even though we know how he feels about childless women. 

But this isn’t about politics to Walz. He told the Huffington Post that “my daughter Hope was named Hope for a reason. . . . Because married for eight years, no children, wanting children—we got Hope because of this type of stuff.”

Try to imagine Donald or J.D. Vance saying anything that heartfelt and earnest. It’s impossible.

And that’s the biggest difference — and Donald’s biggest weakness: He suffers by contrast. Harris and Walz remind us how much they have to offer the American people, how much we’ve lost because of Donald, and how little he and the Republican Party have to offer.

Donald and J.D. see Americans as rungs on a ladder they’re willing to step on to get power and impunity. Tim Walz will hold the ladder steady for as many people need it to get where they want to go and then, when everybody is safe, he’ll fold it up and then put it back in the garage exactly where it belongs.