ELECTION OF 2024: WHAT AMERICA HAS BECOME

If I have been stupid enough to publish occasional social commentary in the past, I surely cannot ignore the recent 2024 Presidential election in the USofA. I refuse to pretend that I have a complete handle on just what the hell is going on in the country of my birth. But I have a few ideas.

* A majority of the voting citizenry of the USofA chose a lying, narcissistic, sexual predator to be the face of their nation. They chose a serial evader of the consequences of his acts to be their Chief Executive. The bankrupter of a casino will lead the American economy. A man who routinely insults the military will be their Commander in Chief. In general, these attributes were not hidden from his supporters. Character didn't matter to them. This is what America has become.

* Obama's election normalized hate. Hate is a stronger emotion in the voting booth than love. 

* Democrats have chosen to take up the causes of marginalized people. I'm not saying that's wrong, but it's a lousy electoral strategy. By definition, marginalized people do not constitute a majority. You can argue that, taken together, they do add up to a majority. The problem with that thinking is that marginalized groups have different, sometimes conflicting concerns. Being pulled in different directions does not lead to coherent electoral strategy. To address that array of concerns, you first have to get elected. And bumper stickers, not manifestos, get you elected. Snow White was a white woman who lived with seven little white men. She was kissed without her consent by a white Prince. Deal with it. Don't make it a campaign issue.

* Progressives want Democrats to double down on the Progressive agenda. But Red states are not Red because Democrats are not sufficiently woke. I fear that the opposite is true. AOC demonstrated her chops by moving to the center early, even if ever so slightly. (Did I really say that?) By the demographics, Democrats have become the party of the elites. And the concerns of people with resources sufficient so that they don't have to worry about the next rent payment or where the next meal is coming from are not the concerns of a majority of the country. It's the economy stupid.

I believe that the Western European model of democratic socialism is the proper governance model for a modern, enlightened state. I also believe that the proper economic model for such a state is properly regulated capitalism. Those two statements are not oxymoronic. Renault-Nissan is the largest automaker in the world, they make excellent cars, and it's 15% owned by the French government. That's a big enough stake to make certain that the corporate types don't screw up. The French, German and Spanish governments combined own just over 25% of Airbus and Airbus is kicking Boeing's butt. So capitalism is alive and functioning reasonably well in Western Europe. But at the same time, Europe has embraced single-payer healthcare and strong quality-of-life guarantees for workers. After 10 years and multiple hospital procedures, both day surgeries and overnights, my wife and I are convinced that French healthcare workers, first and foremost, care about helping us. We are not treated as profit points by anyone in the system.

If that's the type of system that we want for Americans, we need to be as dedicated to a long-term strategy as Republicans have been. We need to vote in every election, from local school boards on up. We need to require schools to teach basics first. When I give the clerk at the counter $1.01 for a $.51 order, there should be no head scratching about the amount of change that I'm due. Critical thinking does not seem to follow if you can't read, rite, and do rithmatic. Our elected officials, whether in the minority or the majority, must be even more ruthless than the Republicans have been since Obama was first elected, ruthless against the opposition, ruthless against distractions within our own party.

TIM WALZ: MY HOT TAKE ON HARRIS' VP CANDIDATE

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have never voted for Donald Trump. I would never vote for Donald Trump. I would rather vote for Barry Goldwater than Donald Trump and Goldwater has been dead for a while now. Even dead, he'd make a better President.

When Biden stepped back and anointed  Harris as his successor, the Veepstakes immediately began. My thinking on the matter was fairly simple. I counted five attributes/qualities that would be required to be named Harris' VP. I got four of the five right.

The two easiest qualifications to predict were political necessities. The VP candidate had to be male and had to be white. I'm not particularly proud of my country for having to say that, but as Teddy Roosevelt's favorite political commentator opined in the late 19th Century, politics ain't beanbag. The rest of the quote is highly indicative of the 10th Century male mentality, but at least the part about beanbag applies. Obama's candidacy and election unleashed a supposedly dormant racist streak in the American electorate and Hillary Clinton's candidacy added misogyny to the equation. Those two streaks run sufficiently deep in the hearts of a sufficient number of voters, even a portion of those who might otherwise be partial to a Harris candidacy, that a ticket with two persons of color or two women just does not make political sense in the real world of American politics.

If I had had Harris' ear during the decision-making process, my next two criteria would have been to choose a governor from the Midwest to add executive experience to the ticket. Although Harris holds the second highest executive office in the country, she came to it from the Senate. Senators generally value consensus. They are masters of shifting the goalposts to come to an agreement. But it's the job of the President to set the goalposts and determine how much, if any, they should be allowed to shift at all. It's a different mindset, one that neither Obama nor Biden ever mastered. A governor on the ticket might assist Harris in developing that skill. Midwestern? Geographical balance, particularly since there's a Left Coast liberal at the lead.

I got the last bit wrong though. I expected her choice to balance the ticket in another way, to be more centrist than Harris. But Walz is not a centrist, as were the main challengers for the nod. No, I think that Harris chose Walz because he was as close to her progressive leanings as anyone else in the running. She doubled down. No deep policy divides. No clashes of style - although there are clearly style differences. Just not clashes. This pairing is not JFK and LBJ, or Lyndon and Hubert for that matter. Kamala and Tim will have no problem holding hands and singing Kumbaya together all of the way to the White House.

THE ATTACKS

       Military Service: Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard as a teenager. After 24 years of service, he had risen to the rank of Command Sergeant Major. I have read interviews with both superiors and subordinates that confirm that for some time prior to his retirement, Walz had discussed with them his desire to run for Congress and his concern that doing so would require him to leave the Guard because the Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from participating in political activities. He did indeed file for his run for the House in early 2005, some time before his unit was informed that they should prepare for the possibility of being deployed to the Middle East sometime in the next two years. Before. The charge that he deserted his unit because they had been cautioned to prepare for deployment is false. I suppose that he could have withdrawn from the Congressional election or asked the Pentagon for an exception to the Hatch Act as would have been required if he stayed with his unit. He did none of that. He simply continued with his planned retirement. I suspect that those in his former unit who accuse Walz of cowardly behavior will be voting for Trump. They’re entitled. I thank them for their service.

Walz's bio said that he had retired as a Command Sergeant Major. And the day that he retired, he was addressed as a Command Sergeant Major and treated like a Command Sergeant Major. The day after his retirement, because he had failed to complete a correspondence course to confirm his promotion from Staff Sergeant Major, he was considered a Staff Sergeant Major for benefits purposes. You say to-MAY-to. I say to-MAH-to. He's changed his bio.

In supporting gun control legislation, Walz once said that he opposed civilians carrying weapons such as he carried "in war." He misspoke. Although he carried such weapons and trained with such weapons, he never served in a combat zone. It is correct to say that Walz misspoke.

        Governor of Minnesota.: Tampon Tim is the sort of sniggering teenage nickname that one might expect from immature males uncomfortable discussing women’s periods. Such men are mostly Republicans, apparently. As governor, Walz signed a bill requiring that public schools make menstruation products freely available to students beginning at fourth grade. His critics charge that the law requires such products in bathrooms for boys. Not true. The law leaves the matter of distribution up to the individual school district.  I have read of several districts that do not require such products in boys rooms. I have not read of a single one that does.

Walz also signed a bill making free breakfast and lunch available to all students. In addition to simply making certain that kids were fed properly while in their charge, the law was intended to relieve districts of the administrative burden of qualifying students for free meals and of tracking families in debt to the system. Saving children the embarrassment of being refused service due to debt or administrative error was also a consideration. The attack comes because a contractor to the state’s Department of Education was found to have  defrauded the feeding programs of the Department of over $250M. The problem with this attack is that the fraud predated the law that Walz signed. It even predated Walz’s governorship, having begun during the administration of his predecessor. Yes, the buck stops at the governor’s desk. But in this case, the buck had been being passed before Walz had anything to do with the program.

IN CONCLUSION

Walz can be shown to have made mistakes. He has spent his entire life in the public eye in one way or another, so there are nits to be picked. But Walz has done nothing so egregious as to come close to losing my vote. In fact, the more that I dig, the happier that I am with Harris’ choice. I will vote Harris/Walz enthusiastically and with a clear conscious.