Opposition strategy re: Walz and Shapiro, got me thinking [View all]

[Metaphorical]

Picking up comments from Politico and The Hill, the prevailing sentiment that Shapiro was not chosen has been relief, but its telling as to why.

The thinking here is that Shapiro would likely have been seen as a centrist Democrat that would have broader appeal to conservatives, while Walz is seen as more progressive. A Harris/Shapiro ticket then would have peeled away independents and moderates.

However, I think that Trump and his handlers may have made a serious miscalculation, and it comes largely from not understanding Midwesterners.

I grew up in Illinois, went to college there before coming out to Washington, and come from farmers on both sides. Farmers understand farmers. A high school football coach is a big thing, especially one that led a rural school team to the championships. It's a big touchstone. So many people in the midwest feel like they've been abandoned by the Democratic party, even as they've watched the big corporations buy up their land and wipe out a lot of the smaller towns in the process. They are generally very focused on family, on kids, on little league, and homecomings, and real food. Religion is important, yes, but I also think there is a yearning for something that isn't so partisan, that provides an off-ramp to all the hate that seems to be coming from the increasingly corporate pastors that they're getting.

When my grandfather passed away, the new (and very slick) pastor that they had talked about how he was now in heaven, driving Cadillacs and sipping champaigne. I heard my grandmother grumble afterward, "Stupid fool - Barney wouldn't have driven a Cadillac if someone paid him to."

I understand the small Congregationalist church fired him not that long afterwards.

Tim Walz is going to appeal to a lot of those folks in a way that no one has in ages.