This is an opinion piece.

Wisconsin conservatives we know are giddily applauding the disastrous choice of Tim Walz because they think it helps Trump.

Kamala Harris’s bizarre vice presidential pick of pro-BLM, pro-illegal-immigrant, high-taxing, far-leftist Tim Walz only makes sense if you view it from a liberal point of view. But Harris fundamentally misunderstands rural, Midwestern voters, including independents, including those in our home state, the battleground of Wisconsin.

Many Democrats will vote for a person based on ideology or title. Ask any Democrat for a specific accomplishment of Kamala Harris, and they’re likely to focus on her identity (“first black-Indian-female, etc.!”) or her titles (VP, AG, DA.)

The Associated Press ridiculously gushed of Walz, “It would be hard to find a more vivid representative of the American heartland than Walz.”

Well, we live in the American heartland, and we beg to disagree.

Rural Midwestern voters are not going to vote for “Weird Walz” just because he’s a rumpled-looking ruddy-faced older white dude with a baseball hat and a drunk driving arrest. That’s insulting to those voters, and it’s frankly the only reason we can think of for why Harris picked the Minnesota governor – to court the flag-waving pickup-truck-driving white guy “deplorable” vote, or at least her stereotype of it.

You know, guys like we grew up with in rural Wisconsin who “cling” to their religion and their guns, according to Barack Obama, and have FJB signs in their front yards.

3 months ago, Minnesota Gov Tim Walz replaced their state flag with a new flag resembling a Somali regional flag.

This is Kamala's VP pick. pic.twitter.com/t7PfqPTl5j

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 6, 2024

Yeah, Walz has the BIOGRAPHY – football coach, small-town teacher, National Guard service, that kind of stuff. But rural (especially male) Midwestern voters are motivated right now by the economy and the border, not identity politics, and Walz is absolutely terrible on both issues. They won’t vote for Walz because of his far-leftist ideology and the Biden/Harris economy. He’s not even remotely moderate. He’s a joke factory of liberal insanity, once saying he wanted to “invest in a 30-foot-ladder factory” because he opposes Trump’s border wall.

Fundamental to this misunderstanding by Harris is the fact that it’s not your father’s Minnesota anymore. Do Americans really want the “Minnesota experiment” to go nationwide? They won’t when they learn more about it.

Minnesota has been hijacked by radical one-party leftist rule, and that’s turned the state into California overnight. It’s also sent Walz on a leftist policy gorge fest (as opposed to, say, Tony Evers in Wisconsin, whose worst instincts have been constantly checked by the Republican-controlled Legislature.)

Why the Tim Walz Pick Is an Ideological Disaster

The Tim Walz pick will inevitably draw new attention to Harris’ tweet supporting a bail fund for Minnesota rioters. Even the New York Times has a story out reporting that, two days after George Floyd died, “with protests in Minneapolis turning increasingly violent, the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, asked Mr. Walz to deploy the National Guard. Hours later, the city’s police chief submitted a written request for 600 troops. But it was not until the next afternoon that Mr. Walz signed an executive order allowing the Guard to assist cities.”

This was Minnesota under Gov Tim Walz: pic.twitter.com/6CCbhyOPca

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 6, 2024

“It was obvious to me that he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down,” said State Senator Warren Limmer, a Republican, to The Times. The Times quoted a 2020 Minnesota then Republican-controlled Senate report on the riots:

“Governor Walz had the ability and duty to use force and law enforcement to stop criminal violence, but he did not. Governor Walz was not willing to do what was necessary to stop the rioting right away because he was having a philosophical debate about whether the use of force should be used to stop violence.”

If even the New York Times can’t bail Walz cleanly out of the issue, you know it’s going to be a problem.

For good measure, Walz mandated INDOOR masking and created a hotline encouraging Minnesotans to rat out their neighbors who ignored his draconian COVID-19 mandates.

“Some of the most progressive laws in Minnesota’s history were passed in the last two years,” Patch.com reported, in a story headlined, “What To Know About Gov. Tim Walz’s Controversial Tampon Bill.” It reported that Walz signed a bill to put tampons in boys’ restrooms. Yeah, that will play well among Wisconsin musky fishermen and Pennsylvania steel factory workers. Not. Heck, even in Minnesota he’s a lot less popular than the more moderate Amy Klobuchar.

Patch also reported that Walz helped make Minnesota a “Trans Refuge” state where, by law, Minnesota “cannot enforce an out-of-state court order that penalizes a parent or their child for seeking transgender-related procedures.“

And then there’s the economy, including jacking up sales and capital gains taxes, which aren’t wildly popular positions with independents or the mythological forgotten men of the Midwest.

Minnesota voter Roger Ellingson, who is from the Walz demographic, went on Minnesota TV and advised, “He used to be what I’d call a middle-of-the-road Democrat. Now he’s a straight-up socialist.” That’s what one-party rule – and not serving in a somewhat red congressional district anymore – will do to you.

Minnesota voter on Kamala Harris' VP Pick Tim Walz:

"He used to be what I'd call a middle of the road Democrat. Now he's a straight up socialist."pic.twitter.com/diMIe1Qb9U

— Bobby LaValley (@Bobby_LaVallley) August 6, 2024

We’re not the only ones to notice this miscalculation. Intelligencer, no conservative site at all, responded to the Walz pick by questioning whether Harris understands the assignment – which we read as fraudulently flipping on her extreme liberal positions to move to the center, so she can win and jettison the centrist positions to eventually lead from the far-left. They’re practically begging her to have a Sister Souljah moment.

She initially looked like she might, tossing previous liberal positions overboard on fracking and abolishing ICE and lots of other crazy things. But then came Weird Tim Walz, reminding all of America that Harris is a radical.

Intelligencer called Walz “possibly the most liberal” governor in America, noting that his budget included a plan to give illegal immigrants free health care. This is no small change. Minnesota Reformer reported that “17% of Minnesota’s uninsured” are illegal immigrants, and the price tag for the health care expansion plan that includes them “is estimated to cost Minnesota about $8 million in the first two years and will jump to $100 million in the following two years as enrollment increases.”

They left out the fact that he also signed plans to give illegal immigrants FREE College tuition and driver’s licenses. Walz supported plans to make Minnesota a sanctuary state. He applauded governors for pulling their troops from the southern border.

So one of, if not the, most liberal governors in America is on a ticket with a woman named the most liberal senator in the U.S. in 2019 (the site just zapped its ranking, by the way, but we wrote about it at the time.)

In their cringe “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom call, also a clear attempt to pander to these rural voters, Harris and Democrats again proved they just don’t get what moves these folks. Weird Walz showed up and spoke glowingly about…socialism. He’s no Joe the Plumber.

“Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values,” Walz gushed. “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Yeah, that will go over really well in Cadott. Or Hayward. Walz is like the Ryan Clancy of Minnesota (that’s our socialist here in the Milwaukee area, and he predictably was applauding Walz’s selection.) She’s got the socialist vote locked down!

Here’s the only nine seconds needed to completely tank Tim Walz in any swing state.

He’s an admitted socialist. His words. pic.twitter.com/0335mZxbdo

— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) August 6, 2024

They say a month is a lifetime in politics. Now a day is. Harris, in one fell swoop, perhaps ego over-inflated with the media hype boomlet, just reinforced the key conservative narrative against her – that she’s a radical in a Hillary-like suit. How did that work out for Hillary? The anti-police rioting in the cities didn’t help her. Reminders of Walz’s role in enabling that – we all remember when that police precinct burned – won’t help Harris either. Voters don’t like disorder.

It seems like Harris’s people were thinking Walz is a more coherent Biden substitute – you know sort of recreate, but flip, the ticket that won before. But Biden had roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a must-win state, and he initially seemed vaguely moderate (no more!) – or at least not as far left as the crazy wing, at least for those who remember the 1994 crime bill. We said INITIALLY.

The left wants to turn Kamala Harris into a female Barack Obama, but she’s got more in common with Hillary.

The younger, more eloquent Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, was the no-brainer better VP pick for Harris, but, sickeningly, the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat party would have gone in full revolt if she’d picked a Jew. Just saying it like it is.

Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Andy Beshear of Kentucky were also more moderate picks than Walz. Heck, even Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers – he with the milquetoast middle school principal Mr. Rogers-taking-off-his-shoes vibe – would have been a better pick than raging Tim Walz, unfettered from any Republican legislative check, who makes AOC look like a voice of reason. After all, Harris needs Wisconsin more than she needs Minnesota, which she’s likely to win.

Where are independents who don’t like Trump to go now? RFK Jr. dumped a dead bear in Central Park and picked a liberal running mate, and the stock market just tanked. It’s hard to see how Harris/Walz doesn’t nudge some of them back toward Trump/Vance – or at least spark memories of Trump’s economy. Who are the weird ones now?