Kamala Harris chooses grassroots Democrat Walz

Every Kamala Harris sceptic – and there are many across the United States – were waiting to commit a blunder in choosing her vice-presidential candidate even as she stepped late into the presidential campaign after Joe Biden moved away. It seems that Harris, by choosing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has done more than the right thing.

She has hit the bull’s-eye as it were. She strengthened the progressive, even left, image of the Democrats. Harris always appeared to be the centrist, much like Biden while being sensitive to key issues like abortion, climate change et al. By choosing Walz she showed that she is fully on the left side of the Democrats’ liberal front.

The best endorsement for Walz came from the United Auto Workers (UAW) when it said, “Tim Walz just doesn’t talk the talk, he walks the walk. From delivering for working-class Americans to standing with the UAW on the picket line last year, we know which side he’s on. That’s why we’re going to send @KamalaHarris and @Tim_Walz to the White House this December.”

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been appealing to the white working class constituency. But Walz is connected to this class in a genuine way. It trusts him as being on its side. That is more than half the battle won. Walz, a National Guard, served as a Congressman for six terms from 2006 onward which he won from a Republican-dominated constituency, and moved back to contest the election of Minnesota governor. He won it in 2018 and he has been in office ever since.

His progressive credentials are burnished in his policy decision over mid-day meals in schools, his stance on abortion, climate change, tax cuts for middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers. Announcing her choice of Walz, Harris said, “Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families. I know he will bring the same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president.”

Biden appeared to be a weak leader in contrast to the aggressive, assertive Trump, and his choice of Senator J.D.Vance for the vice-presidential candidate seemed to be a winning combination of bringing in young blood. But the Harris-Walz team looks not just a viable Democratic team, and all this was done in a few weeks’ time, but it looks a winning team.

The team embodies the Democratic values in contrast to the conservative, even reactionary policy stances of the Trump-dominated Republicans. Harris-Walz are offering a credible alternative to Trump-Vance, both in terms of personality and of policy.

While Harris gathers the African-American, Asian and women voters, Walz with his grassroots political credentials will pick up the white working class and white rural vote. Walz cannot be lampooned by the Republicans as a New York or a California liberal, cosmopolitan politician who does not understand middle America. Walz comes from the heart of middle America.

What appeared as a one-sided election in a Biden-Trump contest has now turned into a real ideological battle between Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz, a contest of truly opposed views and personalities. Americans have to make a clear choice. When Biden was in the arena, many people would have voted for Trump even though they did not approve him or like him. But now they have a winning team to support, and a team that offers hope and an alternative to the expansive and unrealistic “Make America Great Again (MAGA)” rhetoric. Americans have to choose this November from true liberals and distorted conservatives. There is no ambiguity between the two. The differences are clear as daylight.