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Walz and Harris (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) |
“Don’t ever shy away
from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s
neighborliness” – prospective Democrat Vice President Tim Walz
A brief glance at history will show us that primaries, as a
means of choosing candidates for national and state offices, became a serious
enterprise in 1960 when Democrat candidate for President John F. Kennedy won
his party’s nomination at a Los Angeles convention by leveraging the system of
primary elections as a new factor in presidential campaigning.
Following the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, both
Democrat and Republican parties initiated reforms to ensure that voters had a
more direct role in choosing political nominees. By 1976, “Democrats had
selected 73 percent of convention delegates in primaries, while Republicans
chose 68 percent,” according to the Daily Blog of the National Constitution Center.
Naturally, national conventions have not disappeared, but
they no longer choose party candidates.
The Democrat Party in an open primary chose current
President Joe Biden as its 2024 presidential candidate. Biden amassed 14
million votes in the Democrat Party primary election. But after a disastrous
debate with former President Donald Trump, party elites decided to push Biden,
most unwillingly, off the deck. Biden, ungraciously at first, bowed out in
favor of Harris, who had acquired not one primary vote. Then things got a bit
foggy.
The manner in which likely Democrat presidential candidate
Kamala Harris and her preferred Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Walz, will be
chosen to head the Democrat ticket in the 2024 elections is, nearly everyone
will agree, unorthodox.
The party elites, who claim to respect “democracy,” have
successfully turned their upcoming nominating convention into an inauguration
ceremony, not that any of the supporters of Harris/Walz will notice.
The party pusher elites – a throwback to the dark days of
party bosses – were thunderingly grateful, most of them enthusing with gusto
that Biden’s selfless gesture had saved both his party and his own gold-plated legacy.
Former Speaker of the U.S. House Nancy Pelosi, the Cardinal
Richelieu of Democrat politics, recently gushed in an interview with Leslie Stahl that Biden should
assume his rightful place on Mount Rushmore beside the figures of Washington,
Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln. Responsible media savants on the left
suppose Pelosi
was instrumental in dumping the defective Democrat primary victor. Pelosi
claims not to have spoken with Biden following the putsch, but a call is on her
“to-do” list. What is the difference, some more acerbic critics are asking,
between a putsch and an insurrection?
Stahl could not suppress a sardonic smile at the mention of
Mount Rushmore, but the interview no doubt will help sell Pelosi’s new book “The
Art of Power,” reminiscent of Trump’s pre-presidential book “The Art of the
Deal.” Biden has yet to produce a book. It is the Biden book, along with a
preface written by his faithful wife, that everyone wants to read.
The day after Harris announced Walz would be her VP running
mate, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont paid Walz the ultimate compliment.
Rejecting the notion peddled by Republicans that Walz, like Harris, is a
“dangerously liberal extremist,” Lamont pointed out that Walz was not much
different than Lamont himself.
“He had a $15 minimum wage. I did that,” Lamont beamed. “He
had paid family and medical leave. Well, we did that. He stands up strong for
abortion rights. Well, I think we did that. They accuse him of being too liberal.
They accuse me of being too moderate. I think he’s gotten it about right,”
meaning, of course, that both Harris and Walz are moderate Democrats, like
Lamont.
Walz has confused socialism with sociability or
neighborliness. That is why he could say without blushing, “Don’t ever shy away
from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s
neighborliness.” The recent election in Venezuela, stolen by socialist thug Nicolás Maduro, has given state and
national Democrat leaders a perfect opportunity to denounce Stalinist thuggery.
None of the all-Democrat members of Connecticut’s U.S., Congressional
Delegation have done so publicaly and vehemently, nor have the prospective
Democrat President and Vice President – a missed opportunity to strike a blow
for democracy.
Opposition researchers are even now combing through the
political records of both Harris and Walz. But factual records, given the
left-tropism of much of the media, may matter not at all provided, as in
Abraham Lincoln’s matchless phrase, most of the people may be fooled most of
the time.
This we know for certain: After six decades and more of
election reform, all aimed at seizing democracy from the prehensile clutches of
shadowy party bosses, the national Democrat Party this election year has
reverted to an earlier, more autocratic period when party elites rather than
state delegates chose the makeup of party tickets.
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