I bristled when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, now running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, was labeled a “West Coast wannabe” as well a “San Francisco-style liberal,” by the Trump/Vance campaign
Since when do “coastal elites” have a claim on progressivism? And since when did progressive become a pejorative term?
But right-wing activists continue to push the fallacy that Midwesterners and rural parts of the country would prefer to turn back the clock on government “interference.”
Progress during Gov. Walz’s six-year tenure can be measured by the increased production of renewable energy, laws that protect abortion rights and gender-affirming care, expanded technology production and commitments to new infrastructure, workers’ rights, and a business climate that’s so robust that surplus revenues are being plowed not into tax breaks, but programs that provide free school breakfasts and lunches for all Minnesota K-12 students, college tuition breaks for lower- and middle class families as well as investments in paid family and medical leave and health insurance.
The result? Minnesota is now so prosperous it’s in CNBC’s top five states for doing business, knocking out Texas.
If that’s a “liberal” agenda, Walz unabashedly assumes the mantle.
That’s because he knows that when government programs help the neediest, they help us all.
“Kids having full bellies helps them learn,” Walz recently said. “So yeah, my kids are going to eat here, and have a chance to go to college, and the opportunity to live where we’re working to reduce carbon emissions.
“Oh, and by the way, you’re going to have personal incomes that are higher, and you’re going to have health insurance. So if that’s what they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.”
But wait, say his detractors, such big government programs are nothing short of socialism. They don’t belong in the Midwest!
Big government is a squishy term.
Sixty percent of U.S. students qualify for free- or reduced-price meals. That’s 30.1 million students. To call filling those children’s bellies “socialism” is an excuse to be punitive.
Turn the focus on our elderly and it’s the same story.
Medicare and Social Security are also in the cross-hairs of the far-right because they are federally funded. The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” the supposed blueprint for the Republican Party, advises no action be taken on their funding.
As recently as July 10, Trump pledged he would not “cut one penny from Social Security or Medicare,” which isn’t the same as taking the programs into the future.
