The Democrat's Underwhelming Ticket

(August 7, 2024) Tuesday, Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her Vice-Presidential running mate.

Yes, he’s a radical Lefty—but so is Kamala. Yes, he’s an experienced politician (12 years in Congress, Governor since 2018) who’s basically an unknown nonentity outside of his own State and the hardcore political junkie class. Yes, he’s a little creepy and ookie in a whiny, aging soy boy kind of way. Yes, he was chosen in large part to satisfy the far-left wing of the party which has come to dominate everything Democratic these last few years.

Yes, he’s the perfect choice to be Kamala’s VP pick because there’s very little risk he’ll overshadow the top of the ticket.

Remember when running mates were chosen because of “what they bring to the ticket” and “balance” and “fitness to step into the office if, God forbid, the worst happens?” None of those were considerations this time around for Kamala, as far as I can see.

Minnesota hasn’t gone Republican in a Presidential election since 1972, but with recent polls showing the State in play for Trump, apparently their 10 electoral college votes are suddenly critically important to Team Hawk Tuah.

Just look at some of the talent Kamala passed over: Arizona Senator Mark Kelly (fighter pilot, astronaut, 11 electoral college votes) and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (must-win swing State with 19 electoral college votes), just to name two. Both are accomplished men who weren’t DEI’d into their current jobs, so they were right out!

Of note, Shapiro is Jewish, which caused Van Jones to opine that "There are some anti-Jewish bigots out there... how much of what just happened (Walz being picked over Shapiro) is caving into some of these darker parts in the party?"

Walz obviously won’t irritate the huge Somali Muslim vote in Minnesota like Shapiro would have—not after he changed the Minnesota State flag to closely resemble the flag of Somalia.

Needless to say, the Powers That Be in Kamala’s campaign aren’t really worried about losing the Jewish vote, which has been reliably Democrat for decades. Or, they’re more worried about locking down the River-To-The-Sea vote, which is a problem for them.

Walz’s main claim to fame is that he’s the guy who let Minneapolis burn during the 2020 St. George of Floyd riots despite the city’s liberal mayor begging him to send in the National Guard to stop the Burn Loot Mobs. One pathetic response from Walz, 1000 small businesses and a police station destroyed later, the Minnesota State Senate found that he “failed to act” in an appropriate fashion to stop the riots and limit the damage to property and livelihoods, and left Minneapolis looking like Mogadishu.

Walz is also the reason #TamponTim was trending Tuesday, because he signed laws protecting transgender care for minors and mandating the placement of feminine hygiene products in boy’s restrooms. As one Minnesota lawmaker famously said, “not all students who menstruate are female,” a position Walz apparently supports.

In 2018, during a CBS interview, he supported Minnesota becoming a “sanctuary State.” Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota now gives free college tuition to illegal immigrants, along with driver’s licenses and access to MinnesotaCare healthcare.

We can all imagine what the southern border would look like under a Harris/Walz regime—pretty much like the debacle it’s been under Biden/Harris with Kamala as Border Czar.

During his tenure in Congress, his Heritage Action lifetime score of 13% was almost as bad as Alabama’s Terri Sewell (6%) or Kamala’s 4% (remember, Kamala was “the most liberal Senator” during her tenure). During the recent “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom, he urged people to “don’t ever shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.”

Perhaps most concerning about the man who might be one heartbeat away from being Commander in Chief are the allegations made by Command Sergeant Majors (Retired) Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr in a letter to The West Central Tribune in November, 2018 (https://www.wctrib.com/community/letters/the-truth-about-tim-walz). In it, they describe Walz’s rather suspicious retirement from the Minnesota National Guard, his demotion at retirement, and their impression that:

“…he makes it sound like he "retired" a year before his battalion deployed to Iraq; when in reality he knew when he "retired" that the battalion would be deployed to Iraq.

“The bottom line in all of this is gut wrenching and sad to explain. When the nation called, he quit. He failed to complete the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy. He failed to serve for two years following completion of the academy, which he dropped out of. He failed to serve two years after the conditional promotion to Command Sergeant Major. He failed to fulfill the full six years of the enlistment he signed on September 18th, 2001. He failed his country. He failed his state. He failed the Minnesota Army National Guard, the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion, and his fellow Soldiers. And he failed to lead by example. Shameful.”

Walz claimed that he retired in order to run for Congress, but Tulsi Gabbard, in a similar position, did not. It looks like he retired to avoid being deployed to Iraq. That’s not exactly the level of intestinal fortitude most Americans expect from their leaders—unless your name is Barack Obama and you believe in “leading from behind.”

I’m sure we’ll find out much more about Walz’s devotion to progressivism and why it makes him such a good fit for Kamala in the days to come. Guess what? It doesn’t matter in the slightest.

That Tim Walz, like Kamala Harris, is somewhere to the left of Karl Marx doesn’t matter. His record doesn’t matter. The destruction his policies have wrecked on his State don’t matter.

All that matters is that Walz has been chosen to not overshadow Kamala, and to stand there and be puffed up by the media to be the greatest thing since deep-fried Snickers were invented. He and Kamala will hold rallies, he’ll give speeches, attack Trump and Vance, and help hide the fact that the Dem’s Presidential nominee was selected, not elected, and is a DEI hire who doesn’t need to be running for School Board, much less President.

The pair will be the recipient of billions of dollars worth of free positive media exposure, and any number of polls saying they’re ahead, or the race is “too close to call”—all to make another 2020-esque steal plausible.

That’s their plan, and it’s blatantly obvious. They think they’ll get away with it again, and why shouldn’t they? They’ve had basically no consequences for what they did in 2020 (and 2022), so where’s their incentive to change what’s working?

That’s why Kamala picking a radical, America Last Progressive (read: communist) as a running mate didn’t surprise me. In fact, I was expecting it, and would have been shocked if it had been someone else. The Democrats, having gotten away with abandoning democracy, stealing elections and laughing when the Republicans did little or nothing to stop them are doubling down on their same old tricks.

Will it work this time? I’m not so sure. Not only are Harris and Walz two ultra-lefties in the same progressive pod, but they’re equally underwhelming as candidates. There are also levels of anger, frustration and fear out there like I’ve never seen before, and those are powerful emotions to be playing with. My sense is that the country is a powder keg, just waiting for a spark to set it off. Is Kamala choosing Walz that spark? No. At least, not now.

But, if Walz holds true to form, and keeps spouting progressive, divisive rhetoric? If he keeps pushing ideas that most Americans find distasteful, if not abhorrent? If he’s perceived as a critical part of a blatant attempt to steal another election?

Then who can say what might happen, or just how ugly it might be? That’s what worries me much more than Tim Walz’s “one person’s neighborliness.”

Dr. Bill Chitwood is a retired Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatrist who does political consulting and media relations. He is the author of Beyond Maga, available on Amazon under his pen name, Doc Contrarian. He can be found on Substack and social media as @DocContrarian.

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