From Patrick Toomey: Don’t F This One Up, Dems

For a whole host of reasons that are not worth belaboring now, the donkey essentially hit on a winning lotto ticket in recent weeks. A party that was clearly headed towards a defeat that might forever alter the trajectory of our political system found new life literally overnight because an 81 year old career mediocrity finally stepped aside at the last possible moment. 

How much the meteoric rise of Kamala Harris’s chances since Biden’s withdrawal has to do with her and how much of it has to do with the exigencies of the moment is for others to ponder. The fact is that she effectively wrapped up the nomination within hours of that withdrawal and that she has been on a remarkable roll and has generated remarkable enthusiasm ever since. As Umair Haque put it:

Because this isn’t a normal moment, in any sense of the word. This is democracy versus fascism, and in moments like these, the orthodox stuff of politics, policies, platforms, etcetera, come second, and rightly so, because the first job is simply to preserve democracy, and prevent collapse. 

And so in moments like this, it’s energy that matters most.

That’s a hard thing to put your finger on. It’s a numinous word to use at all, and it’s one that in the American way of thinking, we’re uncomfortable with, too much so, and wrongly so. But for “energy,” we could also substitute many other, more formal words: sentiments, attitudes, social contagion, confidence, optimism, a sense of possibility.

The countervailing fact is that this tangible shift has little to do with anything in Harris’ career before the Vice Presidency, with her tenure as VP, or with any decisions or policy moves she has made since Biden’s withdrawal. That will change soon when she announces her choice of running mate. Of the names mentioned most often, the one that appears to offer the most promise is Tim Walz of Minnesota, who already set the GOP back on its heels with his “These Guys are Weird” meme.

Walz, furthermore, has a highly impressive gubernatorial record: 

More importantly, he’s had the best record of any recent Democratic governor. (Some might argue for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but she’s taken herself out of the veepstakes.) By way of comparison, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, blessed with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, recently canceled a congestion pricing scheme that had been in the works for decades, flushing perhaps a billion dollars down the toilet in the process. Meanwhile, Walz, with just a one-vote majority in the state Senate, has signed a legitimately sweeping set of reforms. As I detailed in a Prospect piece some time ago, these include a major expansion of labor rights (including a first-in-the-nation ban on employers compelling employees to attend anti-union meetings), a new paid family and medical leave system, protections for abortion and LGBT rights, legal recreational marijuana, restored voting rights to felons, universal free school breakfast and lunch, and more.

 That reform package isn’t some kind of radical craziness far out of the Democratic mainstream. It amounts, more or less, to a state-level version of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Picking Walz would signal that Harris is serious about her plans to take another big policy swing, should Democrats win control of Congress, and likely inspire rank-and-file Dems to work even harder on her behalf.

While Minnesota is not a swing state, Walz’s “straight, white, cis man from the Midwest” appeal should fit Wisconsin (a neighboring state) and Michigan as well. He presents well on TV— I would welcome the chance to see him debate Vance. His labor record should help counteract the GOP’s pseudo-populism.

Walz, furthermore, doesn’t carry the obvious baggage of Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, another short list VP candidate. Biden & Blinken Back Bibi’s Bombing had become an albatross around the donkey’s neck as this year unfolded. In particular, that policy was highly toxic with younger voters, and it was equally toxic in Michigan, with its huge Muslim and Arab populations. As native son Michael Moore notes:

Choosing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) as her running mate could also lose Harris Michigan to Donald Trump, Moore warned.

 “Shapiro said it’s ‘antisemitic’ for anyone to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel in order to convince them to stop their apartheid behavior,” Moore said. “He also cruelly compared peaceful college students to the Ku Klux Klan because they were calling for an end to the slaughter in Gaza. Actions like these will diminish the Arab American vote for Harris and depress a large swath of the youth vote throughout the country.”

While the VP selection process has largely remained under wraps thus far, Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer rallying with Harris is worth noting.

Hopefully, it was merely a one-off in a swing state.  Shapiro as nominee would be a huge mistake. As per Moore again: 

“But as many have said, the Dems are pros at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” he wrote. “So, as I see it, that’s the only way we can lose. If too many people sense it’s the same old political hoo-ha, the Democratic vote will be seriously depressed, millions will stay stuck in their despair, and all of this may lead to a Trump victory.”

Moore was correct in warning against the rise of Trump in 2016, he was correct in downplaying the projected “red tsunami” of 2022, and he’s correct here. We all need to hope like hell that the Dems won’t kill the current momentum and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by nominating Shapiro for VP. The stakes are too high this time.