Summary:
Pro Choice
Supports Action Against Climate Change
LGBTQ - signed a bill that bans the practice of conversion therapy and another that protects people seeking or providing gender-affirming health care in Minnesota.
U.S.-Mexico border - likely to push for reform that offers a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented migrants.
Gun control - Gun owner, hunter, and veteran: understands guns. Supports gun control.
Israel-Gaza - Anti-hamas and historically pro-Israel, but no real insight beyond that on the current conflict.
Economy - Progressive, pro-labor legislation, The United Auto Workers (UAW) celebrated Harris’ decision to name Walz as her running mate. tax cuts to Minnesota residents, while raising taxes on some corporations and high earners.
Paid leave, free school meals, and other issues - Progressive.
My personal two cents - would have liked to see a more vocal anti-genocide stance on Israel, but Israel isn’t really his concern as governor of Minnesota, so I’d expect some more global-issues-oriented statements soon as VP pick. Other than that… this dude’s fuckin great!! My vote for Harris just became much more enthusiastic!
I’m one of those in the large group of people the article mentions not being familiar with him, so this was very helpful. He honestly sounds great. I just hope he isn’t too progressive for the moderate voters, but it sure works for me personally.
I can see a bit of your point about “too moderate” worries, but in reality this is the time for people to vote for the future.
Might as well go for broke on the bet, because if it goes wrong we’re all fucked anyways.
Either we choose to have a fucking dictatorship, or we choose a progressive leadership the next 4 years (if the scRotuM and legislative bodies aren’t included)
Personally I’m excited that someone “so old” actually seems to care about anyone younger than they are. We need that kind of person in leadership.
He’s only like a year older than Harris. Yeah, it would be cool to see more people under 40, but he’s not some ancient like Biden.
I get what you’re saying, but it’s just so vital that we win this one. I’d rather have a ticket that was less optimal from my personal point of view if it makes us more likely to win. Having a wonderfully progressive ticket that loses the election would be a very, very bad thing.
Agree. While I had no problems with any of the potential VP picks, I hope she made the correct choice.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-walz-and-not-shapiro-for-vice-president/
In two respects, however, Harris’ choice could have negative consequences. First: During her years in the Senate and her failed quest for the Democratic nomination in 2020, she adopted a number of progressive positions—endorsing the Green New Deal, opposing fracking, supporting Medicare for All (including for undocumented immigrants), and comparing ICE to the KKK—that she is now repudiating. Choosing a running mate seen as strongly progressive could make it more difficult to separate herself credibly from her past record.
Second: In the context of the Electoral College, Harris’ choice could backfire. While Walz’s Minnesota is safely Democratic, Shapiro presides over the most important swing state in the 2024 election. Although many pundits see Walz as especially appealing to rural and working-class voters, the evidence suggests otherwise. Compared to Biden’s 2020 performance in Minnesota, Walz received the same share of the vote overall (52%), and he did no better than Biden among rural and small-town voters, working-class voters, and Republican identifiers while running four points behind Biden among Independents.
By contrast, Shapiro far exceeded Biden’s 2020 baseline statewide, racking up 57% of the vote compared to Biden’s 50%. And he outpaced Biden in virtually every electoral group, exceeding the president’s share by seven points among rural and small-town voters, seven points among non-college voters, nine points among Republicans and voters leaning Republican, and five points among Independents.
Exactly my worry. Thanks for the somewhat concerning citation. I’m going to hope for the best.
Even my conservative dad (he’s a never trumper but still very much conservative… would be voting for Haley,) respects Walz.
Which is more than can be said for his last goober of an opponent who told press that line about kitty litter in schools to accommodate furries.
Yeah, I’m glad it’s him and not Shapiro. While Shapiro would pretty much secure Philadelphia, Walz can pull people of all kinds.
What’s fun is I’m not sure my dad has realized Walz is a flaming progressive. The response to Covid (fact-based, science supported, and ‘measured’,) and the response to Floyd riots (law and order, but that includes right to protest,) Cary a lot of water with the not-totally-MAGA.
(We also have a lot of inbred hicks that are totally maga, though, and the “you’re weird” resonates in that note.)
It blows my mind that centuries-old concepts “let’s not jump to hasty conclusions” and “people should be free to protest the government but not break the law” just got called “flaming progressive”.edit: Sorry, now I see what you’re saying, that those were some points that pull people from across the aisle.
Oh yeah. He started as a moderate, but has turned incredibly and wonderfully progressive.
And more importantly, effective.
Edit: a large part of it is that he’s very good at communicating the ”why”. And he’s genuine and sincere. He can pull moderates and the unicorn undecideds in, while also getting progressives very energized.
Love him. (Also I’m excited for Peggy. First Native American gov, first woman in mn to be gov. And she’ll have 2 years for people to get over it while shoe shopping for even bigger shoes.)
I just hope he isn’t too progressive for the moderate voters
I think this is more of a myth than anything, that voters get turned off by a “too progressive” agenda. Bernie was immensely popular, even if he didn’t end up winning the primary. And I think he probably would have helped Hillary a lot if she had picked him as VP instead of Kaine, who didn’t help her at all.
Bernie was very popular in blue cities, but middle America thinks he’s a nut job. There’s zero chance he would have done as well as Biden in a general election for exactly the reasons I’m concerned about here.
I also don’t know anything about the guy other than what I’ve heard on podcasts and so on in the last 24 hours.
That said, he does seem to have a well established ability to woo voters from further into the conservative end of the spectrum than other progressives.
For example, as @Sterile_Technique@[email protected] said, “Gun owner, hunter, and veteran: understands guns. Supports gun control.”
He also really cut through with the “creepy & weird” thing. Listening to the way he talks, and the way he frames things, he seems to have an ability to speak to people in a way that resonates with them.
How sad is it that my first thought is how mad I’ll be now if we lose? This is a great ticket, where once I was basically eating a week old egg salad I’m now having some proper greens.
A bullet point list of his policies for those with a short attention span like me.
- Abortion: Supports abortion rights; signed legislation protecting access in Minnesota.
- Climate Change: Aims for 100% clean energy by 2040; streamlined renewable energy project permitting, secured EPA grant.
- Immigration: Backs pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants; expanded state services regardless of status.
- Israel-Gaza: Aligns with Biden-Harris on two-state solution and humanitarian aid in Gaza; condemned Hamas’ actions for Oct. 7th attack.
- Gun Control: Evolved stance, now supports assault weapons ban, universal background checks, “red flag” law.
- Economy: Advocated progressive pro-labor legislation; tax cuts for residents with corporate/high earner increases.
- Paid Leave: Signed bill providing paid family/medical leave up to 12 weeks.
- Education: Supports free school meals, tuition-free public higher education for eligible low-income students.
- Marijuana Legalization: Signed legislation legalizing recreational marijuana and expunging/resentencing lower-level convictions.
If the republicans and neoliberals don’t ruin it with endless foreign conflicts, this might a great admin (if they win!).
Harris/Walz should run on a platform of implementing something like the Nordic model here in the states, or at least paving the path for it. The Nordic states are not “communists” but have reasonable social welfare and related standards.
States with social welfare have also been shown to be less susceptible to far right ideologies.
Edit Nordic model for reference https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model
Nah, Nordic model is not a good choice. It’s all fine to drill some oil, collect a lot of taxes and give that money away to people as welfare, while enjoying innovations produced by evil liberal capitalists.
I can’t think of anything advanced after Nokia that is built in Scandinavian countries. No cars (Saab is dead, Volvo is sold to Chinese), no microelectronics, no innovative drugs. To be fair, they have IKEA and LEGO, but this is not what makes humanity progress.
I feel there is a lot of options on the left spectrum that is less radical but still beneficial for broad population. Think France or Germany as an example.
No innovative drugs? Wegovy is made by Novo Nordisk.
Novo is the most valuable company in Europe and 16th in the world
I stand corrected on this one.
Props for being willing to say this.
Unity engine is also of Danish origin
So we do have a few large innovative companies 🙂
Exactly, by a team not just one genius CEO doing all that by staying up late in their lab all night pushing KPI limits, spread those rewards around now.!?
You can innovate and have social programs. Look at the riots happening in the UK, if those people had social programs which weren’t gutted or made inefficient by their hostile government then their communities wouldn’t be getting shafted by poverty or health issues and blaming it on immigrants
FYI, I am yet to have anyone give me a reasonable justification for why CEO pay is multimillion or billions. No one person or CEO is providing that much value to society, and in fact from what we’ve seen concentrating that much wealth into a few places just ends up creating a mess
I’m not saying you cannot have both. I’m saying that US and Nordic countries are like on opposing poles of economical systems spectrum. And in my opinion the better options are somewhere in the middle.
Yeah, CEO salaries are often outrageous. Wealth taxes should be implemented to curb that, and not just high bracket income taxes.
Hmmm, not really? It seems the Nordics are exactly the middle sweet spot of globalization and social welfare
I am not the only one saying this though, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/the-new-nordic-model/
It would be nice if you can elaborate what you mean?
That’s what I love Lemmy for - a new perspective (and down votes, of course). Thanks for the link, it’s an interesting read. I also looked up details on their taxation system and it’s not that crazy, especially on business side. If someone wants it, here is the link to the article which compares Nordic countries tax system to US: https://taxfoundation.org/blog/scandinavian-social-programs-taxes-2023/
It seems that my opinion about lack of innovation was caused by me not knowing or hearing about big names of Nordic companies. No Scandinavian Apples or Googles around.
But as much as I enjoyed this conversation, I feel we have ventured way too far from Tim Walz…
Walz is super popular here in MN. I’ve met him and he is a super down to earth, kind, man. I am so excited to vote for him again, this time for VP!
With his state being 20% nuclear powered, I hope to see a shift towards more nuclear power.
Woah are they really gonna be such a young whippersnapper to be a politician? America is getting really progressive.
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https://time.com/7008402/tim-walz-policy-positions-abortion-guns-immigration/
