I suppose the headline is obvious at this point, or Minnesota Governor Tim Walz wouldn’t be on the Democrats’ ticket, but it’s worth remembering amid all the hype.
I first became familiar with Walz last year when some in the media were describing Minnesota as a shining example of progressivism and the “best state for workers”, so I started to look into the legislation.
No doubt the state passed some decent bills. Here’s a thread listing them all:
They made school lunches free for all students, leading to Governor Tim Walz being adorably mobbed by elementary schoolers.
(Special mention to my amazing friend @SydneyJordanMN, a chief author and major proponent of this bill.) https://t.co/JsulllBX8I
— Will Stancil (@whstancil) May 23, 2023
What the thread misses, however, is that last year working Minnesotans organized and got two major pieces of legislation near the finish line that would’ve dramatically improved their lives, but those bills threatened the interests of the capital class. The monied interests in this case were Uber, Lyft, and the Mayo Clinic, and when their bottom lines were threatened they all responded with various threats. In each of these instances, Minnesota’s elected officials — led by Walz — quickly backed down.
So while Walz might be a former union member, he might look positively saintly next to the other finalist for the VP spot Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, he might make for a friendly photo op and sound relatable to people who work for a living, but recent actions make it questionable just how much of a friend he is to American laborers.
Let’s look at the two cases last year where the Mayo Clinic, Lyft, and Uber provided marching orders to Walz. First the Mayo Clinic. Here are the details on the nurse staffing legislation from The Minnesota Reformer:
The Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act (HF1700/SF1651), backed by the nurses’ union, would require hospitals to form committees made up of nurses and other hospital staff to create “core staffing plans” that include the maximum number of patients each nurse can typically safely care for.
In response Mayo threatened to take its plans for new facilities and infrastructure worth billions to other states. [1] A Mayo executive wrote the following to the governor and legislative leaders:
Because these bills continue to proceed without meaningful and necessary changes to avert their harms to Minnesotans, we cannot proceed with seeking approval to make this investment in Minnesota. We will need to direct this enormous investment to other states.
Democrats quickly caved, led by Walz who agreed to exempt the Mayo Clinic from the union-backed legislation. Once Mayo sprung a leak in the legislation, cracks began to emerge everywhere as other hospitals declared the double standards unfair, and soon the entire bill was dead.According to Mayo, Walz was key in throwing nurses under the bus. From Becker’s Hospital Review:
Its relationship with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was essential to its exemption from the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act — and the bill’s final-hour revisions, the health system said.
Mayo Clinic’s President and CEO Gianrico Farrugia, MD, said the health system remained “steadfast” in its position throughout the legislative session and expressed gratitude to those who backed them up — including the governor.
The good news is that Mayo workers are soldiering on without him. From The Star Tribune:
Mayo Clinic is one of the world’s top hospitals, but hundreds of Rochester workers say the medical system isn’t treating its workers like they’re world-class. About 1,600 unionized clinical technicians, personal care attendants, janitors and others are seeking at least $20-per-hour wages, in line with other hospitals around Minnesota. Rochester nurses are looking into unionizing, which would create a union with more than 6,500 members in Minnesota’s third-largest city.
Meanwhile, thousands more workers are set to come to Rochester as Mayo builds its $5 billion expansion downtown.
Aside from better wages, the chief concern of nurses at Mayo facilities is inadequate staffing — the very problem that Walz caved to Mayo on:
Karrie Ellingson, a personal care attendant and a member of the SEIU bargaining team at St. Marys, said her department needs 28 attendants to serve about 150 patients on average each day.
“We consistently have been working 30 percent short every day, not including PCAs who may call in ill,” she said.
Ashley Rohwer, a certified surgical technologist at Mayo for almost two decades, said in her department at St. Marys, union and nonunion workers put in a combined average of 30 hours of overtime each day.
“Most employees if they’re [scheduled] at an eight-hour shift on a regular basis, most of them are working 12-hour shifts,” she said.
Mayo is now threatening its nurses with more limited work flexibility and “workforce issues” should they unionize.
Mayo, which in 2017 decided to prioritize the care of privately insured patients over those on Medicare and Medicaid, also killed efforts to create a Health Care Affordability Board in Minnesota last year. The committee would have monitored health care market trends and provided recommendations and oversight. Mayo didn’t just demand to be exempted from this bill but that it be axed altogether, writing:
This bill is extremely problematic and poses a huge threat to the well-being of Minnesota’s health care system as drafted. It must be removed from the HHS omnibus bill and consideration for Mayo to move forward with the previously stated investment.
Once again, Mayo got what it wanted.
Now to Uber and Lyft. Details of the failed worker-friendly bill from the Minnesota Reformer:
The bill required transportation network companies, including Uber and Lyft, to pay drivers a $5 minimum fee plus $1.45 per mile and 34 cents per minute in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area. Drivers in greater Minnesota would have been entitled to $1.25 per mile and 34 cents per minute. The minimum rates would have increased with inflation.
Drivers would also have been entitled to 80% of cancellation fees if they already departed to pick up a rider as well as $1.25 per mile and 10 cents per minute if the companies charge customers for a “long pickup.”
Drivers were ecstatic at the prospects of better pay and protections:
Senator @OmarFatehMN gets the hero’s welcome after his Transportation Drivers, aka Uber/Lyft bill, passes Senate pic.twitter.com/JbYCssEfLF
— John Croman (@JohnCroman) May 21, 2023
But elected officials lacked the courage to stand behind workers when Uber went scorched earth, and in statements to news outlets across the state said the following:
If the bill is signed into law, beginning August 1, Uber will stop operating our ride service outside of Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. In the metro area, we will only offer premium products to match the premium prices required by the bill.
In the end, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz vetoed the bill. A watered down version passed this year, however, which raises pay by $1.28 per mile and $0.31 per minute. Eid Ali, president of the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association, said the law is progress, but still a letdown, especially in light of Walz vetoing a better version last year. “Letdown” is putting it kindly. What this year’s bill really did was strengthen Uber and Lyft’s duopoly in the state of Minnesota. From the Minnesota Reformer:
…the new law includes a series of anti-competitive mechanisms that will disadvantage any new competitor against the incumbents.
The application fees for ridehail companies are the biggest unaddressed issue that cements an anti-competitive market in place. Any Uber competitor entering the market first has to hand over nearly $100,000 in annual licensing fees to Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the Metropolitan Airports Commission.
The Minnesota bill also removed cities’ ability to set wages, enforce them, and to collect data about ridehail operations in their jurisdiction. More:
Lastly, the bill didn’t advance Minneapolis’ ordinance language requiring ridehail companies to pay 80% of special event or surge pricing, and drivers know very well that “platform fees” and “external fees” eat deeply into their existing take rate. Some drivers have publicly posted earnings of $13 on a $55 Lyft ride.As only 28% of riders ever tip, and gross Uber wages are overall down 17% since 2022, it would be no surprise if drivers saw even less earnings after the implementation of this bill. It’s odd that this element of Minneapolis’ language didn’t make the final bill, but then again, it’s odd that most elements of this bill benefit Uber and Lyft at the cost of drivers, riders and competitors.
So, to summarize: the Legislature’s ridehail bill is anti-competitive. It increases the costs for new competitors and for riders, and raises the barriers of entry for competitors, while not readjusting the regulatory fee to compete against Uber and Lyft. It removes the ability for drivers to influence their city councils to secure higher wages again. It introduces potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars of undefined and extortive costs to be compliant with nameless driver’s advocacy organizations, while disallowing those organizations to once again coordinate with competitors to provide an alternative for Uber and Lyft.
Walz, obviously, touts the bill as a major win for workers, but a closer look at the rideshare legislation and his servitude to big healthcare money show that “America’s dad” isn’t quite the friend of the common man he’s being made out to be.
Notes
[1] As the Minnesota Reformer pointed out at the time, what possibly concerned the bigwigs at Mayo the most is that nursing staffing standards could have slammed the brakes on its emerging automation efforts, including an initiative with Google Health. Mayo touts its automation advances as a way to conserve PPE — not that they really use it anyways:
Beginning Monday, April 10, wearing a face mask will no longer be required for patients and staff in most patient care areas on Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic Health System campuses.
Learn more about the updated masking policy: https://t.co/IUzLoKut3q
— Mayo Clinic (@MayoClinic) April 4, 2023
Here’s Mayo on its automation “advances”:
Mayo Clinic has demonstrated the feasibility of using a robotic system to perform simple tasks in a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient room. Mayo’s experiment, which used a manikin in a simulated intensive care unit (ICU) room, shows the potential of robotics to reduce the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the exposure of health care workers to COVID-19.
The experiment, described in the February 2021 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes, demonstrated the ability of a robot to successfully:
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Push a button on an intravenous pole
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Adjust a ventilator knob
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Push an ICU monitor button to silence an alarm for false alerts
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Adjust an oxygen flow rate knob
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Push a nurse call button to “off”
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> What the thread misses, however, is that last year working Minnesotans organized and got two major pieces of legislation near the finish line that would’ve dramatically improved their lives, but those bills threatened the interests of the capital class.
Great stuff. A good deal nearer the bone than right-wing memes — or (in)validating them.
From Above the Law:
So perhaps this
ka-ching“family connection,” as it were, is what makes Kamala so comfortable with Walz (as opposed to other aspects of his legislative record, about which some have speculated).Lambert Strether: Along with David Plouffe, who just joined the Kamala Harris campaign.
Résumé notes, from his entry at Wikipedia:
What talent! What coinkydinks! It’s win-win-win, I say.
>What talent! What coinkydinks! It’s win-win-win, I say.
For anyone but the average citizen trying to survive.
And I was assuming sarcasm in your comment. I don’t think “Swamp” begins to describe anything DC related.
Memories are short and also it is a long wait until early November. We’ve already the media gaslighting experience since the first debate implosion by Joe; and lo just a few mere weeks later we have a sparkling new ticket for the Democratic party.
“Our Democracy”…indeed whatever remains of it. Now I’m wondering about the Vance selection by the Trump team… comparatively speaking a VP selection should usually not swing voters I would suppose. VC moneyed interests ( Mark Cuban, Reid Hoffman ) are aligning behind Harris & Walz per CNBC this morning.
It will be interesting to see if the return of the VC cabal to the Team Blue donor circle results in defenestrating Lina Khan and others in the current administration. I’d like to think that so much has happened they won’t be able to put the anti-trust genie back in the bottle but they’ve kept the law on their side for so long I don’t have much to go on there besides hope.
Which is why articles like this are essential. It is not possible to hope for improvement, or to work towards a goal, if you don’t know where you are. The media has lied to us for so long about everything that most citizens have no idea why nothing works any more. Perhaps the people who want to support a Harris-Walz campaign can use this information to argue against the people directing the Democrats to abandon Lina Khan? Perhaps understanding the current situation better will allow people to realistically put more states in play?
Thanks again for good coverage of topics we’re told to ignore.
I’m still betting on skeletons we don’t know about in other closets.
And I think there are still people around who don’t like having a Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Florida, even if a lot of Minnosotans retire to those states.
What kind of movement/culture/ongoingly reliable support base would be needed to keep officeholders in power against Uber, Lyft and Mayo Clinic if those officeholders refused to back down to Uber, Lyft and Mayo Clinic?
How would such a movement be grown-built over time?
OMG, really? When will we find a for-real Democrat that works only for workers, stands up for human rights, tilts at the corporate elite windmills, and fight like hell for women’s and other minorities’ interests?
Oh yeah, there is one, but Don Quiote is fictional and, besides, any person doing the things you’re dissing would be progressive, and that wouldn’t float with your ideology, would it?
Right now, I’d vote for anybody or anything who won’t be “a dictator on day one,” or says “After this election, you won’t have to vote anymore, because we will have fixed everything.”
Two packs makes the Kool-aide extra strong.
I’m not sure why you’re objecting to scrutiny over a ticket that had zero democratic input from a party that has done everything it could to ignore the people in this country for the past, oh, let’s be nice and say 30 years.
Do you think that Uber and other big donor companies aren’t going to hold these candidates feet to the fire if they make promises to big money and don’t follow through? Of course they are.
Do you think any corporate media will actually discuss any issues with the Democrat ticket in an unbiased way? Of course not. These two will be hailed as the second coming of Christ wrapped inside whatever folk hero analogy the writing rooms can dream up.
So be excited about this ticket if you want to be. But use the information presented here to make sure you know what you’re buying if you vote for Harris-Walz. And maybe use it to hold them accountable to any campaign promises they make too.
Never is the answer as the culture stands now and I see no way that changes. Why? Politics is rarely ideological or principled (whatever that means)–politics is about power, who has it and who doesn’t. Because the working class abandoned unions and community consciousness (solidarity) the big players always win because they have power. As for human rights, the average American doesn’t care very much about that. As for “women’s rights” and “minority interests” those are front and center for the ruling-class to divide the citizenry. Identity politics destroyed the left in this country and as long as that path is pursued by whatever “the left” they will be serving the bosses interests and they will laugh out loud on the big and bigger boats at the working class. The left will never recover from identity politics–it’s purely what the Democratic Party is now which is the party of the upper-middle class (the old Eisenhower Republicans as Thomas Frank wrote about) and assorted “minorities” who are very easily manipulated to work for the ruling class as they are now.
So what “rights” are minorities and women missing? And if you say abortion then “women” who favor abortion rights need to convince other women who don’t want it to vote down anti-abortion legislation in the varios states.
Return of the old left is very needed right now. At one time the left understood economics, political science and was constituted by skilled workers. The Identity Politics scam as turned leftism into a complete joke.
Your resolute support for the pall in the Uniparty ratchet is duly noted. Your goodthink is its own reward, I suppose …
I keep wondering if you guys just completely forgot that Trump has already been President. We already know what he does when elected!
Meanwhile the people actually in power are directly funding and supporting a genocide, and Biden has actually been *worse* than Trump on immigration, which was the specific issue everyone used to call Trump a Nazi over.
In the end, it would appear that voting for change is for chumps and clicks.
A few heart rending issues that are never to be fixed get the progressive to keep the neocons and perpetual war going.
Yeah I’m going to say this is a bit of the nirvana fallacy. We got the guy most likely to support universal tangible material benefits out of all the likely contenders, and the only guy who understands Arnade-esque community emphasis, so if he has a few weaknesses in the deregulation of taxis and disproportionately friendly to a relatively small healthcare provider that’s a big employer in his original congressional district, I can live with it. Obviously there are more progressive people I might prefer but when you balance them against their electability in a deeply neoliberal indoctrinated USA, I’m pretty happy with Walz.
the deregulation of taxis
At issue was not deregulation of taxis, it’s regulation on uber/lyft… nice talking point you’ve got there…
mayo clinic is small?
And both industries played the “I’m taking my ball and going home!” ploy
“…but when you balance them against their electability”
the deeply neoliberal indoctrinated dems only allow right wing candidates and they don’t represent and have no intention of representing me in any way shape or form, so I have no intention of voting for them.
I can understand not wanting to vote for dems bc they don’t share my values, and have myself previously voted Green due to that desire to not have to just choose the lesser of two evils.
But, as someone who wants the Dems to win in this election, I think this was a good choice.
This guy has charisma that is quite rare in modern US politics, and is to the left of all the other recent charismatic pols.
But why would you care who is Vice President in terms of whatever his supposed policy positions are. The VP has no power in terms of policy making, and despite your arguments that his capitulation is minor it shows that he will give in to any concerted efforts by those he is beholden too. So even if he had policy differences with Harris and her cabal he’s shown he will in no way shape or form fight against them.
Well primarily because the president could die or step down, even if they have no other influence, but as someone supporting Harris in this election, even though I have huge issues with her and the Dem establishment, I’m just glad she picked him out of the other contenders how generally seemed like they would actually push her to indulge in her worst instincts/policies.
A vote for the duoparty = a vote for the status quo = giving consent to the Dems’ abrogation of the primary = a vote for “fundamentally, nothing will change”.
I guess there are some people who do believe that the DNC leadership was just as surprised as the media talking heads pretended to be that after going all-in on Biden and gaslighting everybody about his functionality as POTUS and then suitability as a candidate — this literally for years —, whups, suddenly Joe Biden wasn’t functional or electable after all and they “had no choice” but to anoint Harris.
And Harris was fully part of that gaslighting.
So, yeah, when people keep voting for those who only show utter contempt for the Republic, it’s not so surprising that we arrived at this point, and it won’t be surprising when things actually get a lot worse than they are now.
Mayo Clinic is part of the Deep Culture of Minnesota so it may be hard to challenge Mayo Clinic.
But Uber could certainly be painted as an Outside Criminal Conspiracy and fought on that basis. What made Walz scared to take that approach to Uber and maybe Lyft as well?
So we should go with someone who has shown he doesn’t really care about workers in the hopes he might influence policy in a better direction.
That would make him a remarkable VP indeed. It also smacks of the same logic that states we must destroy democracy to save it…
Ditto. Every candidate had their positives and negatives. Tim Walz is the Midwest personified. Decent people who mostly mind their own business and live a happy life. The go go get ahead, show off your status it’s not meaningful to them and that is what they associate with “liberal elites.” Tim is going to bring lots of people to the polls.
So this guy will “fight for” and *might* vote for something posit8ve for workers, so ignore all the other things? This is the same lines about Biden supporting workers and then telling the Railroad unions to get back to work with the “deal” the senate commission approved for them. It’s always appearances nothing tangible.
Of course, you will “vote” for whoever is chosen for you to vote for and be “happy”.
Pro-oligarchy, anti-labor, pro-genocide, pro-kleptocracy, warmongers. You can be “happy” to support using our public resources for more genocide. Genocide with a smiley face
Don’t forget that Waltz also is a cop lover who has aggressively attacked the Hennepin county attorney for bringing charges against a bad cop who shot to death a black motorist. Waltz publicly stated he sided with the police before the trial date polluting the county attorneys case. Additionally, Waltz conducted a 180 degree change following the George Floyd protests by diluting potential police reforms to nothing while throwing more money to failed police policies. That is where, perhaps, kopmala enjoys her running mate as much as she does because his tenure is remarkably like hers.
Not to disagree with Connor’s description of the recent events regarding the Mayo Clinic, but what went down cannot be fully understood without taking into consideration the respect, bordering on reverence, in which vast numbers of Minnesotans hold that institution. That respect is in most cases based on close familial or acquaintance experience. That includes my own immediate family. As a result the default view of many of our citizens, whether red, blue or whatever, is that the Clinic is on the right side unless proven otherwise.
MN native here: Mayo is generally talked about in a hushed reverence, as if not to startle it and have it scamper off into the bushes (to Chicago) like a deer.
Institutions, however, are made of people, who perform the work of the institution. Without its workers, Mayo is a brand name and a bunch of suits pushing paper and having expensive lunches. No Minnesotan I’ve met wants health-care from Mayo’s management; they want care from, primarily, it’s nursing staff and the specialists they support.
It ought to be simple enough to have a realistic conceptualization of something like a health-care business, but I have failing confidence in Americans’ ability to do so. This is informed by having had discussions with people about foreign affairs, where something as large and complex as a country with tens or hundreds of millions of people, workers, owners, beaurocracies, charities, and the whole nine, is referred to as if it is a monolith.
The foisting of Kamala and this guy on the electorate, and grassroots Democrats enthusiastic embrace of them, has shaken my faith in Americans judgment, and renewed my interest in figuring out what the hell happened. I’ll be perusing Bernays’ Propaganda, McLuhan’s Media is the Message, Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, and the literature on social cognition. Specifically, I’m attempting to use some of these frames in crafting an analysis of smartphone and internet age media, how its consumed, and how that shapes and constricts our thinking, discourse, amd action. If anyone has any recommendations for other helpful texts or areas of inquiry, I’d buy you a meal. It may turn into a book.
If one can’t be hopeful, one can at least be busy.
Have you read
“The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World” by Max Fisher? Much to think about.
I have not, but will soon, now! Much appreciated.
Adam Curtis’ The Century of the Self (2002).
When Walz caved on the Keeping Nurses at the Bedside Act, what were his options? Walz’ behavior in the other two cases suggests he had options in the first, but I’ve grown used to thinking of race to the bottom dynamics, wherein local and state governments cut each others’ throats to win corporate investments, as hard to counter. So how serious was Mayo, did they have viable alternatives lined up or were they just blowing smoke? How could Walz have gone on the offensive? In general, do we have examples of states digging in and winning?
Mayo is the economy in Rochester/Olmstead County. It’s effectively a company town.
yep, austin is owned by hormel, duluth used to be owned by u.s. steel, bill clinton made sure that duluth got their freedom, along with massive poverty. international falls used to be owned by international paper.
cargill gets the rest of the rural cities.
Walz was the best the nafta democrats have. the only one that threw a few crumbs our way.
he brings nothing to the national scene, only the rust belt. thats how worried the nafta democrats are.
how is walz going to hold onto arizona, georgia and nevada?
walz might not be good enough to hold onto PA, and MI. let alone get Iowa back.
its a big gamble, but then again, it was looking like trump might win minnesota to, something unthinkable.
I read recently that the Cargill family is buying up big hunks of Duluth, so I guess they’re diversifying.
lake shore views. the average deplorable will be forced out of duluth behind the mountains.
The old money bought large swaths of the North Shore long ago. Look at a parcel map of the 3 counties and every large parcel that isn’t a park or a port is owned by the same few families- Cargill, Weyerhaeuser, Hill, etc.
A few years back Ken Burns did a two part Mayo Clinic doc on PBS that seemed to almost be a corporate promotional fiilm. It seemed odd, but then Mr. Americana has been increasingly wearing his politics on his sleeve and just said that Joe Biden was a great president and up there with LBJ (?!) and FDR.
Of course he was always more a talented filmmaker than a deep thinker, but it shows the devotion to Cult Dem that ignores the rivers of gore that our Dems have let loose overseas and the ethical conflicts to be found in supposedly noble institutions like Mayo. Goodthinking alone is enough for our “left” party.
The point of Walz might be to just serve as an empty gesture to progressives/populists in order to try and garner votes for Harris at this late stage in the game, without having any intention on delivering on any of it, i.e. the Obama strategy of “hope and change”.
The DNC has probably already talked to Walz behind the scenes so they are either going to keep him on a very tight leash or Walz is going to act like your standard neoliberal empty suit under Harris.
We can never have nice things because the DNC makes very sure that nobody with “funny ideas” ever gets anywhere near the levers of power when they vet candidates.
“The point of Walz might be to just serve as an empty gesture to progressives/populists in order to try and garner votes for Harris …”
Exactly. What else are VP candidates good for.
Vance, the fake hillbilly, has his ode to the downtrodden back at number one on the NY Times non-fiction bestseller list. So he will get something out of his failed attempt as a VP candidate. Trump sure can pick ’em.
Green is my preferred political color this go around.
This is a great example of Naked Capitalism covering the stuff you won’t see elsewhere, or at least covering it before you see it elsewhere.
I have not decided how I’m voting, and I doubt we’re going to get any clearer signals on policy in the next 90 days, so I may vote third party as usual. That said, the fact that Harris is willing to disregard the beltway triangulators and send the signal of picking someone who is perceived as a pro-working class liberal suggests to me that maybe Harris does not live in the increasingly demented Reagan version of Ozzie and Harriet world that dictated policy for the past 40+ years.
The world of 2026 may not be better, but at least there is a possibility that the direction will change slightly between now and then. I think that’s more positive than the prospects we had a month ago.
“That said, the fact that Harris is willing to disregard the beltway triangulators…”
Huh?
Her first pick was clearly Shapiro who screams “beltway”. Also, Obama and Pelosi are big fans of Walz so I’m really unclear on how this disregards politics as usual for the DNC.
I think it is different. The Clintonian circle jerk we’ve been subjected to for the past forever is typically between Wall Street and another huge class of donors. Picking Walz shows the party is trying to act like a party instead of a simple vessel for donor cash. It will be interesting to see how long that lasts. We could start a Lina Khan death watch clock as an indicator.
Also interesting to see will be if they continue to give both names on the ticket top billing after the election, if the Democrat ticket wins. I know I’m not the only one who found all the “Biden-Harris Administration” references to be odd. Ms. Harris has seemed to be someone who doesn’t want to share the spotlight. But if we see Harris-Walz references once they’re elected, maybe it means we’ve changed something.
If elected, Walz won’t turn the Vice Presidency into a Fourth Branch of Government. He’s no Dick Cheney.
I think rejecting Shapiro took some guts, especially after he had been built up as the obvious choice by beltway standards.
The fact that they picked Walz??? On the lead up to the announcement the press in large part was spiking the football for Shapiro so it’s fair to say that this was a surprise. More than anything, a Shapiro pick was the conventional wisdom – the types that NC comment section likely loathes are the ones going all sour puss over this pick.
I think people get way too focused on the behind the scenes kabuki and the speculation that goes with it. I dunno if it’s a product of this era and social media but I’ve at least found that you have to let events ‘breathe’ for a while before a clearer picture begins to form on what is verifiable.Otherwise, we’re just telling ourselves stories to make ourselves feel better about matters in the moment.
I don’t know what was the expectation here, a candidate that’s truly progressive would never have received consideration for the VP post in the first place. Grading on a curve here, this pick is better than Shapiro, who is a full on corporatist who was likely to push for removal of Lina Khan at the FTC and other pro-labour and pro-consumer appointees.
Listening to political commentary, the sense is that Shapiro got undone by his ambition, Harris didn’t want a VP that would steal her spotlight and outshine her, which given her lack of political acumen and skills, is a pretty low bar.
Considering the stated options, Walz was the least conservative of the bunch. He’s still conservative, not Wellstone, just to be clear.
The fact that he’s on the ticket as the least conservative of the VP pool has my attention, as I assumed that they’d pick the most conservative just like Dems have always done since the Reagan era. This might signal a sea change. Time will tell- one point off the line doesn’t always indicate a change in trend.
If Harris-Walz loses the dems can say they tried a “progressive” in Walz and it was a disaster. Therefore they will avoid another “left-leaning” candidate for the foreseeable future.
If they win they can continue with business as usual ignoring progressive causes if not undermining them at every turn.
Exactly.
But there’s the chance, albeit a remote one, that this signals a sea change- a Democrat party that just realized that the steering wheel doesn’t only go to the right.
I’m not holding my breath, but I am watching.
For all the hoopla, I think this is exactly what’s going on. Harris is a giant trial balloon being sent up into a tempest, someone who is so untrusted that they’d rather keep a rotting corpse of Joe Biden as the official president and not even give pretense that she has any part in governance in the middle of multiple crises converging. No Dem has to be seriously expecting that she’d actually win and shame on us if she gets anywhere near being elected…although, considering that the other side is Donald Trump (whom, btw, I’d insist is better than almost any GOPer who’s presidentialiable–sad!)….so back to the realization that we’re in the most, eh, interesting timeline of them all….
Walz didn’t like being in Congress, prefers the executive branch.
Mayo is a very powerful employer in Minnesota, not just jobs wise (Mayo Clinic employs 4,500 doctors plus over 40k staff). Having daily international flights coming into Rochester (MN) has added a lot of lustre to our international reputation.
Ilhan Omar’s CD is mostly skyline and corporations.
The pressure on DFL politicians to support corporations is tremendous and as a result the Walz-Flanagan administration has made some deals with strange bedfellows. Got huge grant for education for poors as part of a probably unConstitutional “Reparations” effort. Basically it gives you enough money to make you credit-worthy to get loans to go to college or start a small business. Rules are such that the bottom line is that you have a business or degree plus debt to keep you in line.
I don’t think Walz leads on any of that. It’s the DFL that’s utterly corrupted by corporate money, and the ideological driver has been Lt Gov. Flanagan who is the real liberal in the Walz-Flanagan administration. Walz is for good and bad taking a lot of credit that belongs to Flanagan who is a tireless worker for liberal causes, especially ones the neoliberals have their fingerprints on.
Minnesota, like the rest of the country, is a mess. Both parties are to blame. When you take a hard look at all the players involved, Walz doesn’t look half bad. And yes, I’m grading on a curve and no, I’m not planning to vote this year. Still see no point to it, both sides reek of Israel and monied interests.
thx for this post.
The expected fuck over.
But it is details as such that are pissing me off:
“Because these bills continue to proceed without meaningful and necessary changes to avert their harms to Minnesotans”
Whenever I read this language I could freak out.
The dishonesty is so obvious, the cynicism so blatant. It´s shameful.
Yet, what is a voter supposed to do? One who doesn´t know about Stein or West or can´t vote for either or is ill-informed. Leaving foreign policy aside and the question how much difference Trump/Vance would make for real (against the MIC? CIA??)
On the one hand I would like to see the Democratic establishment be humiliated. Otherwise the genuine left will never get the message and move ever more to the right, one inch every year.
Agenda 2025, as put well earlier here, is the same stuff we have already had in the past decades (but admitting that wouldn´t sell papers.)
Since 2000 we had a 50/50 split in GOP vs. DNC POTUS´s and where are we now 24 years later?
On the other hand may be I am being too friendly towards Trump´s naivité and underestimating the regional damage that can be done on state-level.
They know. It’s rather that many believe you are somewhere on the spectrum of a retard to an outright enemy for even daring to consider voting third party, likely because it goes against politics as team sport or the Dem party said so.
Mayo is, of course, full of s**h. You can’t build health care facilities for a profit where people don’t live. Clearly, there are people to extract wealth from living right there in MN, so the threat of simply not building and upgrading facilities to further suck money out of sick and dying people is ludicrous on its face.
Mayo is the preferred health care provider to the world’s rich and powerful. The local airport services abundant private jets.
Back in the 90s a housemate of mine unwittingly sold perfume and makeup to the Queen of Jordan while said housemate was working at Dayton’s. The Queen was in MSP shopping while the King was laid up at Mayo for cancer treatment. My incredibly lucky (and charming) housemate was selected by the Queen to accompany her on shopping trips whenever the King was getting treated at Mayo.
That’s one example that I know of. The news in MSP used to run feature stories on the celebrities that showed up at Mayo for treatment.
One more, the oncologist that treated The Shah of Iran for cancer in the 70s treated a friend in mine in the early 80s, much to her parents’ delight. Examples like this are why Mayo is held in such high esteem by Minnesotans, probably too high given what Mayo has become politically. Top tier medicine in a place that should be known for corn and limestone quarries. This is NOT a typical (or even atypical) rural hospital.
There are two corporate parties and unions have to be representatives for the working class that is the sad truth. He’s no Bernie but even Bernie failed to stand up to corporate interests in an effective way for many issues despite a progressive sentiment shift in the public; in the 2010’s do nothing Republicans became do nothing Democrats and so far in the 2020’s both sides seem ok with a slow slide into right wing faux populism.
However recent moves by dems to reach unions break from a tradition of both parties seeing working class people as essentially lesser than (99% of politicians and people working on Capitol Hill are college graduates who never held a ‘lower class’ job.) Walz is another liberal within the corporate political system but he at least has a heart in some places where other Democrats do not. Not being able to stand up to corporate interests is a common symptom of American politics people largely ignore today.
How many people would join a modest-fee-for-membership Party that called itself the Lower Class Majority Party? Or the Working Class Party?
How many people would be willing to admit to themselves that they are working class or lower class?
Might want to also give this a read (also mentions without going into detail the Uber and Mayo legislation) for a review of Walz’s time in office, which includes some pro-worker legislation, and “stubbornly defying” business pressure to reopen before vaccine rollout: Tim Walz, the Progressive’s Moderate, Is the Obvious VP Choice https://jacobin.com/2024/08/tim-walz-kamala-harris-vice-president?mc_cid=4e106828bf
Also I’d love to hear more about his time in China, it’s a plus for me but I’m sure will be a huge line of attack by the opposition.
Here’s Walz speaking about Biden, just after the debate flame-out that broke the camel’s back:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tim-walz-called-biden-fit-office-wake-disastrous-presidential-debate-performance.amp
Delivering? What, exactly? “Nothing will fundamentally change”? Or delivering moar bombs to Israel?
Is Walz’s statement questionable judgment? Gaslighting? Both?
Show of loyalty. Most politicians appreciate a show of loyalty when they see it.
” If I have a problem, he won’t be among the first to turn against me.”
IMO it’s mainly more evidence — on top of the rest of this post — that, though he may be above average, he’s still a Democrat.
“Because these bills continue to proceed without meaningful and necessary changes to avert their harms to Minnesotans, we cannot proceed with seeking approval to make this investment in Minnesota. We will need to direct this enormous investment to other states.”
Yes, our vaunted “captains of industry”, little more than extortionists killing the public good in the name of private profit. A pox on all their houses.
Would that states and those that lead them could have more solidarity like the capital class. This is why we need more widespread labour unity. Imagine if every state Mayo tried to punt to said the same thing? #weCanDream
PS – it’s been a while … :)
Time once again to belabor the obvious! People used to run for office to wield power. Now they run to get rich. And if your goal is to get rich, then servicing the desires of super-wealthy entities, corporate, financial, billionaires, etc. is the way to go. Which is why our true national slogan is “Fundamentally, Nothing Will Change.” As reported in Forbes, there are “a mere” 735 U.S. billionaires, and they like things as they are now just fine.
Don’t forget the official motto of the Democrat Party:
Now Is Not The Time
I thought it was “We are fighting for bunch of stuff that we’ll never do anything about.”
Is Walz possibly the first Duopoly Pres or VP candidate since the 1981-now neoliberal/Reganomics era that is actually a halfway-Social Democratic Net Good & not a Lesser Evil/Reagan Clone?
Who was the last duopoly candidate that was not a Lesser Evil, Lyndon Johnson?
He’s a lesser evil alright, just not nearly as bad as usual.
Now that lesser than lesser evil = joy (insert mushy emojis for full effect).
And not your average lesser evil (apologies to Yogi Bear).
And lesser evil that is full-on evil-adjacent shouldn’t be the enemy of actually not evil.
So… looks like really only a tiny bit greater than zero evil, honestly just shy of a Saint (nods to O.), ergo quitcher bitchin’
You might consider George McGovern for that title. (Or does he not count as a duopoly candidate, considering how much organization Ds of the time reportedly didn’t help his campaign?)
I couldn’t care less, sorry. I would never “vote” for anyone with a D or R after their names. Fool me once…fool me 8 times? Millions will be duped into willingly wasting their time to legitimize a sham.
What would Ed Bernays say if he could see the effectiveness of Public Relations (propaganda)?
The MassMedia MiniTrue have convinced millions that “voting” for one of two pro-oligarchy, genocidal warmongers represent their interests. It looks like millions of US dwellers will cheer-lead their own destruction. Collective Stockholm Syndrome is firmly entrenched.
Meanwhile, which brand of kleptocratic genocide will you “vote” for? Blue Genocide or Red Genocide?