I was a staunch HRC supporter...until now. The beauty of this campaign season for the Democrats thus far has been Bernie pulling Hillary to the left and closer to the base of her own party. For a few, brief, shining moments I thought we finally had in her a truly progressive candidate who was actually electable...and now she blows it all by asking Tim Kaine to join her on the ticket. Does he bring any important demographics into the party’s tent? NO! Does he energize the progressive base of the party? NO! He may help us capture Virginia’s electoral votes, but HRC is currently up by 9 points there. If swing states were a concern, she should have picked somebody from OH or FL, which are much more swingy than VA and are more important in the overall electoral map.
One thing the electorate has made perfectly clear this year is that they want a political OUTSIDER to shake things up in Washington (see Sanders, Bernie and Trump, Donald). Tim Kaine is the epitome of establishment Washington, he was head of the DNC for two years. Does the world really need another grey haired white guy in political power? He won’t even be a good attack dog to go up against Trump, as he is universally described as a “nice guy”. That means Hillary will have to take on Trump by herself, or lean heavily on Elizabeth Warren.
When will the Democratic establishment realize that there is no great untapped well of white voters out there wanting to vote Democratic? Courting these people brought us the electoral disasters of Dukakis in ‘88, Gore in 2000, and Kerry in ‘04. The energy, money, passion, and votes are with the progressive Obama/Sanders coalition: millennials, women, and people of color. Hillary’s pick should have been made to inspire and fire up these people, not ignore them.
How did this happen? This decision has Bill Clinton’s fingerprints all over it. Bill rose to political prominence by abandoning the left, pandering to the right, and generally screwing the progressive wing of his own party, and along with it a large portion of the American people. They called it “triangulation”, I call it Democratic Party treason. Hilary would have been better off personally and politically by divorcing the guy when he embarrassed her, his high office, and the nation by getting a blow job from an intern in the oval office.
The choice of Tim Kaine as VP threatens to alienate the most important voters in the Democratic Party, and may help hand the White House to Cheeto Jesus. We should all still vote for Hillary as the alternative is a threat to American democracy and world peace, but why did she have to make so much harder by playing it safe?