First of all, Tim Kaine is
not from Virginia, he is from Missouri by way of Harvard. This is
good and bad but no one from Virginia would for a moment think he was
from Virginia, so you should know that. Second, he is not old-school
Southern Democrat. That is good. Third, he is not a racist. Most of
my ignorant west coast friends think all Southerners are racists.
Fourth, he has been elected to political offices on a regular basis
in a state that is heavily gerrymandered, has a large
African-American vote, but which is a very conservative state, in the
classic sense of the word.
Kaine is not in any
way a radical, a progressive, or anything else along those lines. He
will reinforce the Hillary Clinton approach to things, which is to
say, a Rockefeller Republican approach. He may help to trivially
increase education benefits. He may understand how hopeless the poor
and the minority population is in this country, but he is not likely
to stick his neck out too much unless Hillary tells him to, which I
doubt. When it comes to foreign policy, he will be a solid American
representative and will not embarrass us.
I can not emphasize
the following too much. Kaine is a representative of the
Harvard/Washington elite. If you have been happy with that elite's
governance of America, then vote for him. If not, dont vote for him.
He is not unlike John Kerry, if you will.
I dont think that
voters in this country have any choice in who they will have to vote
for in November. And I am not at all happy about this. Do not think
that these people represent a big chunk of America just because they
win in November. We had a gun to our head, and you know what I am
talking about here.
I will update this
post with new information about Kaine as it comes in.
Autobiographical note.
For what it is
worth, I was born and grew up in Virginia (and California). A Californian friend of mine recently told me that Virginia was the Deep South. Another friend was angry that they had to have votes from the Southern states, e.g. that the South had votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate. I didn't have the heart to tell her that this was not the fault of the South, they did not want to be part of the Union either. There was a war about that, recall? It is my impression that most of my friends out here don't know much about the South but are completely certain that they do, a classic example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
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