LIBERALS CAN BE FOLKSY AND RADICAL!

Weekly Opinion Editorial 

WALZ IS RADICAL!

by Steve Fair

      Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.  Walz, 60, is a former high school coach, who served 12 years in Congress after defeating a six term Republican.   In Congress, Walz was considered a political moderate, likely because he was reflecting his district.  Walz was elected Minnesota governor in 2018, but moved to the far left after Democrats won full control of Gopher state government in 2022.  Since then, Walz’s policies have become increasingly liberal. 

     Walz was an unexpected pick for VP.  According to polling, only 21% of Americans know who he is.  Walz is a liberal and his selection was lauded by the most liberal Democrats like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-NY) and IIhan Omar, (D-MN).  Walz has received 100% ratings from Planned Parenthood, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), AFL-CIO, and the National Organization for Women (NOW).   Three observations:

     First, the VP pick seldom determines who wins.  It made a difference in 1960 when Senator John F. Kennedy picked Senator Lyndon Johnson as his running mate.  Johnson’s barnstorming ‘delivered the south’ for JFK in a very close race, that was likely stolen from VP Richard Nixon.  Can Walz ‘deliver the rust belt,’ like LBJ did in 1960?  That is what Harris is hoping.

     Second, the Harris/Walz ticket is the most liberal in U.S. history.  More liberal than McGovern/Eagleton/Shriver- more liberal than Carter/Mondale, Clinton/Gore, and Obama/Biden.  Harris/Walz policy positions are next level liberal. Redistribution of income and wealth is their stated goal.  Using tools like taxation, welfare, public services and monetary policies, they punish those who produce and reward those who don’t.  Their fiscal policies are more communist than socialist.  Their social policies are even more to the left.

     Third, liberals can be folksy.  Walz has been described as sociable and friendly.  He wears Carhart and camo.  He looks and talks like a guy you would run into at the local co-op or elevator.   His nickname is Uncle Tim.  

     Some voters will see Walz’s wardrobe and demeanor as a reflection of traditional Midwestern values from his rural Nebraska roots.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, Walz- and Harris- are radicals. 

     Walz’s fiscal policy has delighted progressives(liberals) across the country.  With a $72 billion state budget package chock full of social programs that Democrats on the national level have only dreamed of, Walz has made Minnesota the envy of liberal states.  Free meals for school kids, free college tuition, and free medical leave, are all programs passed by the state legislature this year. 

     The problem is free doesn’t exist in any economic system.  Someone is always paying the bill.  When an economy has more who don’t produce than those who do produce, their days are numbered.  That is where we are in America.  Government takes from the needy and gives to the greedy.  Voters this year need to look past the folksy, sympathetic, affable persona Harris and Walz are trying to project to what they really want to do- move America to a socialist state.