August 9, 2024
Dear Interested Readers,
Governor Tim Walz Understands The Social Determinants of Health
I was delighted when Vice President Harris chose Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate on Tuesday. I had been only vaguely aware of Governor Walz before his name began to appear in the “Veep” sweepstakes, but I had been impressed by his articulate defense of President Biden when he was interviewed by Amna Nawaz on the PBS Newshour shortly after President Biden’s disastrous debate performance on June 27. I re-listened to that interview this week. The second time around in light of what has happened in the interim. It was an incredible seven-minute defense of the president and an indication of good things to come.
After Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Walz was on the political talk show circuit defending President Biden’s electability and ability to perform the duties of his office. There were many others who were trying to be effective surrogates for the president–Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris–to name a few, but it was not until after Biden stepped down in favor of Vice President Harris and Walz appeared on a now famous MSNBC “Morning Joe” that interest in Walz as a long-shot potential running mate for Harris began to develop. I did not see Governor Walz’s transformative appearance on “Morning Joe” where he referred to Trump and Vance as “just weird” when it was originally broadcast, but I have listened to it now, and you can too. Just click here. Again, Walz was incredibly articulate and may have “defanged” Trump and Vance in less than five minutes of midwestern common sense.
Ezra Klein was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic political pundits to make a case for Vice President Harris to pick Walz as her running mate. His podcast on August 2nd was entitled “Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?” After listening to their conversation which is about an hour long, I was a Walz fan, and the interview left me hoping that Harris would make him her choice for VP. I enjoyed the easy way Walz spoke. I was impressed with the story of his life. I discovered that I was definitely aligned with his political viewpoint. I was most impressed by how his answers to Klein’s questions demonstrated his commitment to improving the social determinants of health for everyone, especially for many of his constituents despite the fact that for reasons that are hard to understand, they are avid MAGA voters. I don’t think that the compassion he expressed for all of his “neighbors” could be faked. It came across as quite genuine. If you want to hear the conversation or read the transcript, just click on the link above. If you want to know what I consider to be the highlights, read on.
In his introduction to the interview, Klein informs us that he thinks Walz changed the political discourse with one word by simply referring to Trump and Vance as “weird.” He gives us a preview of the conversation that is to follow by referring back to what Walz had said on the “Morning Joe” broadcast
We do not like what has happened where we can’t even go to Thanksgiving dinner with our uncle because you end up in some weird fight that is unnecessary. And I think bringing back people together. Well, it’s true. And these guys are just weird. It is. They’re running for He-Man Women Hater’s Club or something. That’s what they go at.
Klein’s comment after repeating Walz’s breakthrough statement:
That was the interview heard around the Democratic Party. I remember it hit me on social media. I saw that and thought, “Oh, that really connects.” And then all of a sudden, it was all you heard from Democrats. “Weird, weird, weird. These guys are weird.”
Why did this connect this way? And is there a risk of this falling into something that can bedevil Democrats, coming off as an insult to Trump’s supporters, like Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” comment in 2016?
I wanted to hear Walz go deeper on all of this. He grew up in a small town in the Midwest and repeatedly won a congressional seat that was quite red. So I also wanted to hear his thoughts on why the Democrats have been losing the types of voters he knows so well and how to win them back.
Klein quickly gets to the point by asking:
You’ve been using that word [weird] for a while when a lot of other Democrats are using “existential,” “terrifying,” “undemocratic.” I’m not saying you don’t believe those things. But why, for you, “weird”?
Walz’s answer:
All those things are true about an existential threat to global peace, in my opinion, a desire to strip constitutional power and division. All of those things are true.
What I see is that that kind of stuff is overwhelming for people. It’s like other big issues like climate change. If you can’t tackle it one piece at a time, it just seems, why should I do anything about it?
It’s the emperor’s wearing no clothes, is all this story is — this guy’s weird stories and inability to connect like a human being. What happened was, the minute that spell came down, the minute everybody in the crowd realized the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes, we can sweep in and say, “Who’s asking to ban birth control? Who’s asking to ban these books? Who’s asking to take veterans’ benefits away?”
I think that Walz has got it right. Trump is an emperor with no clothes. If you member the fable, once someone, a child, had the sense to say that the emperor was naked then everyone saw that he was. Walz’s “weird” works the same way. Once someone says that all the craziness coming from Trump and his minions, which now includes most Republican officeholders is “weird” then perhaps many conservatives will see what Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and other “never Trumpers” were able to see all along. Walz’s sense that what Trump says and does is “just weird” is a plainspoken insight that has been received as brilliant.
In the interview, Walz is careful to state again and again that “weird” refers to Trump and his circle and not to the crowd wearing MAGA hats. Those people with MAGA hats at Trump rallies are Walz’s neighbors and relatives and he is convinced that they mean well, and if they are given a palatable alternative, someone who is not disdainful of them, many will see that the emperor has no clothes, or if you prefer, that Trump cares more about himself than about them. Walz continues with the next step in the “conversion” process:
…And then we come in and say, “Look, Kamala Harris is talking about making sure that you have expanded health care, making sure there’s day care available, making sure that it’s easier to get free school lunches.
Walz is a talented politician. A New York Times article published yesterday describes how Walz and his staff have been preparing for this moment for more than a year. His message is polished. He has been giving a lot of speeches and interviews over the last two years where he presents a progressive agenda as common sense. Like Bernie Sanders, he almost always says the same positive things. If you happened to listen to his speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday after Vice President Harris had introduced him as her running mate, you heard many of the things he said in the Klein interview, and will probably continue to say until November. I hope that after a sweeping victory in November that gives Democrats the presidency and both houses of Congress, the policies that Harris and Walz advocate will become realities. That is what happened after the last election in Minnesota. Once Walz was paired with a Democratic legislature several family-friendly and labor-friendly laws were passed. Walz says that his objective was to ensure that Minnesota was the best place to raise a family. The bills included a guarantee of a woman’s reproductive rights, and free lunches at school for all children without the demeaning requirement of documenting and redocumenting needs. They reinstated a generous child tax credit which he argues is less of an expense with more societal benefit than lowering taxes on the rich.
In the interview, Walz underlines the importance of universal healthcare and public education. He acknowledges the difficulties of both education and healthcare in small-town America. He makes the point that the loss of support that Democrats have experienced in middle America may be a communication failure of Democrats. It’s clear that he plans to be a part of the fix of those communication failures. He uses the ACA as an example:
The Affordable Care Act being one of those — it does a lot of great things, but people now have kind of forgotten that if we take away the A.C.A., you’re back to pre-existing conditions. And I don’t know if we built that into people’s thinking right now. So when Donald Trump says he’s going to get rid of the A.C.A., all right, that sounds good. I guarantee you those people at those rallies don’t want the A.C.A. to go away.
So I keep coming back to this: If they’re not voting for us, there’s not something wrong with them; there’s something that’s not quite clicking. So don’t assume they’re just not clever enough to understand what you’re selling them.
Late in the interview, Klein asks a future-oriented question. Remember that when the interview occurred Walz did not know that he was going to be Kamala Harris’s running mate. Klein asked:
If a Democrat is president in 2025 and there’s a governing trifecta, what do you think Democrats should pass first? What would make the biggest difference for people?
Walz quickly answered:
I think paid family and medical leave. We’re the last nation on earth basically to not do this. It is so foundational to just basic decency and financial well-being. And I think that would start to change both finances, attitude — strengthen the family.
If JD Vance is right about this: that we should make it easier for families to be together, then make sure that after your child’s born, that you can spend a little time with them. That’d be a great thing.
Klein had a quick comeback comment:
Great way of also seeing who in politics is actually pro-family and who just likes to talk about it.
Walz’s comment makes sense because paid family leave is a popular concept and it would make a big difference for many families and would be a signal that other laws to benefit individuals and families that are struggling were real possibilities. Walz’s comment back to Klein suggests that his answer was a strategic comment:
Oh, it separates people quickly.
That is where the interview ended. In less than an hour I had gone from knowing next to nothing about Walz to being enthusiastic about his ability to help convince many voters in the “swing” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada that a vote for Harris and Walz is a vote for a better future for everyone.
I was also convinced that Walz understands that improving the health of Americans includes protecting the reproductive rights of women, but there is more. He knows that access to quality healthcare and education is at risk in many places. He knows that we must take care of the environment and control global warming if we are going to ensure our health and the health of future generations. He knows that housing and a living wage are crucial to health. He enjoys hunting, but he abhors gun violence and has signed laws that both protect reasonable Second Amendment rights and decrease the possibility of gun violence. He has proven that he is an able congressman who can work across the aisle, and he has executive experience. Kamala Harris had my vote before she chose Governor Walz as her running mate. Choosing Walz was her first big decision. I can’t predict the future, but based on her focus on leading us to a better future, I think she has made a great start.
Golden Times
August has a different look and feel from June and July. Things are “busting out all over” in June, especially forsythia, daffodils, ferns, and dandelions. Summer is peaking In July. As I mentioned, two weeks ago, the Rose of Sharon blooms in late July. In mid-summer, daylilies are popping up everywhere. Daylilies are a centerpiece in gardens all over town, and I see them along the roads where I walk. Were they planted by birds or the wind?
In August, along the roads near my home on the edge of town, I still see a scattering of daylilies, but the predominant blooms are the yellow ones of goldenrod. In some places, there are just a few goldenrod plants as captured in the header of this letter. In other places, there are whole fields of goldenrod plants, as you can see in this picture.
If you look at the picture closely, you will see a patch of purple. That is a little patch of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). In other places, I see thicker patches of this tall purple plant. It is in the roadside ditches along with the goldenrod. Purple loosestrife is beautiful, but it is also out of place. It is an invasive species that comes from Europe, Asia, and Africa. It can move out of the ditches along roads and in the boggy areas where it likes to grow and become a problem for native plants. Here is a closer view of purple loosestrife:
August is also when I notice a lot of “flat top white asters.” They have been coming along strong over the last week or so. The ditches along the roads I walk are full of these pretty petite white flowers.
Queen Anne’s Lace is a rarer white flower that I also see along the roadside mixed in with the goldenrod, purple loosestrife, and flat-topped white asters. The Queen Anne’s Lace is white and delicate so it doesn’t have quite the splash of the daylilies, goldenrod, white astors, or purple Loosestrife. It is also a European import, but it behaves and has found a niche (naturalized) in the North American ecosystem that does not threaten other plants. Who knew? There is more. Until I looked up Queen Anne’s Lace on the Internet, I did not realize that it is also called “wild carrot.” It is in the carrot family and the whole plant is edible. There is one word of caution. The plant can be easily confused with the very toxic and deadly poison hemlock. So, beware. If you are not familiar with what Queen Anne’s Lace looks like, here it is:
I downloaded a free “plant identifier app.” It is an amazing tool. Within a half mile of my home, I have identified the goldenrod, purple loosestrife, flat-top white asters, daylilies, white turtleheads, hemp agrimony, and jewelweed. I am going to keep looking for even more. What amazes me is that for many decades I have been walking past these gorgeous wildflowers without paying much attention to them. I can’t ask for a “do-over,” but I do plan to try to make sure that I don’t miss the chances I have in the future to notice what is along the roads I travel.
August feels like the end of a party. The plethora of wildflowers are late-arriving decorations. Labor Day weekend, the “practical” end of summer, is only four weeks away. Most of the flowers will be gone soon after. After the remnant of Hurricane Debby passes to the west on the way to oblivion in the Canadian Maritimes, we have the forecast of a nice Saturday and a beautiful Sunday. I hope that where you live you can be out and about this weekend looking for late summer delights that you may not have noticed before.
Be well,
Gene
