Happily breaking down the Walz!

Besides "pleasantly surprised", I think helps sum up my feelings about VP Harris' decision on her successor.

pic.twitter.com/WsmWAdvKpl

— Moira Donegan (@MoiraDonegan) August 6, 2024

And the Trump/GOP's attempts to respond to the pick of Minnesota Guv Tim Walz tells you it was the right thing.

Trump campaign email: “Tim Walz will unleash hell on Earth!”

— Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) August 6, 2024

They’re right.

Because hell on earth for conservatives is a world with compassion, free food for children, IVF created families, protected trans people, strengthened education and strong unions https://t.co/2dXd9oagQL pic.twitter.com/kYsqAb8Gns

— B.W. Carlin (@BaileyCarlin) August 6, 2024

RADICAL, CRAZY stuff there! I've even heard Wisconsin Republicans say "we don't want Wisconsin to turn into Minnesota" as some kind of attack line. Then I see how Minnesota has a bunch of things that Wisconsinites want (like higher wages and better funded schools and lower property taxes and realioty-based gun safety laws and 21st Century social polciies), and I think "Go ahead with that, WisGOP. Your gerrymander isn't around to save your regressive BS this time."

(Related note, VOTE NO in the next 7 days to stop the gerrymander from living on with these BS amendments that the GOPs are trying to sneak through).

I watched the Walz part of the rally introducing him as VP today, and he seeemd to be having the time of his life, and the Philly crowd was going nuts for him. I think a lot of that is because of the type of guy Walz is, and is not.

Real living rebuke to the incessant, droning insistence that there’s somehow no model of masculinity for young men that doesn’t entitle them to dominate and humiliate women. Yes there is. He’s holding a piglet.

— Moira Donegan (@MoiraDonegan) August 6, 2024

As a GenX white guy, it is embarassing to see what so many guys in my demographic (and younger!) have become, at least on the political stage. Regressive jerks who are stuck in a toxic combo of "1980s shameless yuppie" for work with beliefs on gender roles that are set back around 1952. But also being whiny little bitches whenever they get called out for being such absurd and arrogant dimwits. These are not people I would ever want to be around, let alone imposing their rules onto the rest of the country.

Watching Walz and Harris speak at the VP-intro rally in Philly, both talked about "joy" as something that was important to have as an attribute. I think that's going to play really well when compared to the angry, whiny white men, self-absorbed fundies, and basement-dwelling incels that the GOP parades out on a daily basis.

and for those knuckleheads who say progressives can't win in middle america, how did Walz win in MN, how did Evers win in WI, how did Whitmer/Nessel/Benson win in MI, how did Fetterman win in PA??? https://t.co/kbhN5KZGtk

— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) August 6, 2024

It reminds me of a line I heard WisDems Chairman Ben Wikler give. "Wisconsin has a red Legislature, votes purple, and has a blue, progressive heart."

100% true. What voters believe in, is progressive. And when you get progressive (or even somewhat-progressive) stuff done, people like it. Do you hear Republicans saying in public that they want to continue 2017's tax cuts for the rich or ban abortion or throw out Obamacare these days? NO WAY! They know it's electoral suicide to tell the voters what they (and their oligarch donors) really want them to do.

I just watched Walz say "I learned to compromise, without compromising my values." YES! EXACTLY! And you get elected to get things done, not to grab power and give out funds to your donors.

It's why Dems in the Midwest recognize that you have to make changes happen when you get the chance to do so, instead of caring more about staying in power and making connections over doing actual policy (LOOKING AT YOU COASTAL DEMS). And boy would I love a chance to see my state get a fraction done that Walz has been able to do across the St. Croix.

This feels great. And you can tell the Republicans have no clue how to answer the momentum that the Harris-Walz ticket has, beyond tired lines and cultural BS that is out of step with the Real America. We just need the good folks to keep pounding for the next 13 weeks, speaking up for the right things, and never apologize for it.