This week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was officially endorsed as the 2024 Democratic Party nominee for Vice President at the Democratic National

For those of us who have had a front row seat to some of Walz’s machinations and political decision-making in Minnesota for the past several years, reconciling the current media narrative around Walz with what we’ve seen with our own eyes has been disorienting.

Tim Walz originally decided to run for office as a Democrat after being denied entry to a George W. Bush rally in 2004. He flipped a longtime red Congressional District in 2006, and then proceeded to be one of the most conservative Democrats in the U.S. Congress, ironically aligning himself with many of the Bush Administration policies. He had an ‘A’ rating from the NRA, voted for the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, supported the big agriculture industry, and was obviously pro-military after serving in the Minnesota National Guard for 24 years.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    122·
    3 months ago

    Tim Walz originally decided to run for office as a Democrat after being denied entry to a George W. Bush rally in 2004.

    …

    While true, it’s kind of important that he was there as a teacher taking his class on a school trip, one student wasn’t let in because the student had a shirt on for the Dem candidate, and Walz decided to run as a Dem because of that.

    Other than that tho, I agree we shouldn’t pretend their perfect and progressive.

    They’re “good enough” and they’ll only stay that way with sustained pressure from the left because the right never stops applying pressure.

    I don’t feel like that’s what this article is trying to do, and I’m not giving them the click to find out.

    • Verdant Banana@lemmy.worldEnglish
      521·
      3 months ago

      and this is why our “democracy” is in shambles

      nobody bothers to read articles because they automatically assume it will paint their candidate in the wrong light even when there is a fact checking bot to let you if it is worth the read

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        183·
        3 months ago

        When the summary includes such a gross misrepresentation of the facts, it’s counter productive to reward them with page views to see if maybe some of the other stuff they said wasn’t bullshit…

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
    601·
    3 months ago

    This is bullshit, Walz used to be pro guns, but changed his mind because of the school shootings.
    I imagine many people have done that.

    • AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world
      38·
      3 months ago

      I’m just worried that your baby thinks that people can’t change. I used to be a piece of shit. USED TO.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    503·
    3 months ago

    Ozma, bruh. You really need to pick and choose to have an actual discussion. All you’re doing is bringing minor gripes to a larger discussion. We have an existential crisis in this election, but there just isn’t enough time in the day for any candidates to cover EVERY FUCKING THING conceivable to get whatever your vote looks like.

    Shit is fucked up. People are trying to fix it. They’re also trying to defeat a tyrant who aims to run rampage on the country as a whole. Baby steps.

    • Verdant Banana@lemmy.worldEnglish
      636·
      3 months ago

      wonder what tyrant will be propped up next so the Democrats will again have to be voted in to stop it

      and what are the Democrats focusing on? just Trump/fascist tyrants?

      • theprogressivist @lemmy.world
        364·
        3 months ago

        You act like Trump has happened in every election cycle since the start of the country. Fuck off with your bad faith bullshit.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        61·
        3 months ago

        and what are the Democrats focusing on? just Trump/fascist tyrants?

        Tell us you haven’t bothered to read anything without telling us. There’s answers to those questions, if you’d bother to look. Like, at all.

    • return2ozma@lemmy.worldOP
      1251·
      3 months ago

      Still vote Dem but stop pretending Harris and Walz are saints. You can still be informed about their records.

      • mrcleanup@lemmy.world
        401·
        3 months ago

        No one thinks they are saints. Give us a minute to celebrate having a non-geriatric candidate with a vp pick that isn’t an incel, abuser, robot, or anti-lgbt closeted homosexual.

        • Telorand@reddthat.com
          201·
          3 months ago

          This. This all day. Like, read the fucking room.

          It’s like showing up to somebody’s childhood birthday party and going, “Great party. It’s a shame your parents are getting a divorce.” We have all had to survive four years of Trump followed by a geriatric president people were lukewarm about and also more Trump.

          I think it’s okay to have some excitement, as a treat.

  • echo@lemmings.world
    308·
    3 months ago

    I don’t even have to look to see who posted such stupid shit when the headline reads like this…

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      718·
      3 months ago

      Eh, dude posts damn near everything except pro-trump shit.

      You can’t really try to claim they’re pushing a narrative when they post a lot of pro Harris/Walz articles because they also post a few that aren’t positive.

      To be clear tho. This article is straight garbage from the quoted part alone, I don’t know why someone would de ide to post this specific article.

  • Aoife@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    413·
    3 months ago

    Goddamn the “any critique of a democrat means you’re a trump supporting russian bot” crowd really is out in force here. Majorly supporting Keystone XL, supporting the violent police response to the George Floys protests, and supporting the genocidal regime of Israel are all reprehensible things and it is a joke that they’re trying to paint this man as a progressive.

    • return2ozma@lemmy.worldOP
      612·
      3 months ago

      They did the same thing during Hillary’s 2016 run. They refused to listen to the left. Look how that turned out.

  • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
    393·
    3 months ago

    It’s almost like people can grow and evolve in a nearly two decade span of time.

    I grew up in a Conservative Christian household and was taught to be homophobic, not to trust anyone who wasn’t a Christian because they could be “activated by the devil to work against me at any time”, and grew up with parents who casually used racial, sexist, and other hateful slurs about people.

    Now I’m a very strong LGBTQA+ advocate, actively volunteer for my local Democrat’s office doing phone banking, and am extremely left leaning in all of my views.

    I’m not saying that’s what happened to Walz, but he seems like someone with a big heart who’s trying to do the right thing. If he’s lying about who he is, I’ll be damned if I can tell. He’d have to be exceptionally good at it to seem as genuine as he is. I’m not saying he’s a saint, though. He is human. He’s going to have flaws.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.worldEnglish
    317·
    3 months ago

    CounterPunch - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report) Information for CounterPunch:

    MBFC: Left - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Mostly Factual - United States of America Wikipedia about this source

    Search topics on Ground.News https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/08/23/the-whitewashing-and-greenwashing-of-tim-walz/

    Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

    article does not show him in a good light when it comes to police reform and the environment and worker’s right or anything progressive plus the bot gave the source a high credibility report of mostly factual

    Governor Walz also appointed Republican John Tuma to the Public Utilities Commission, one of the primary agencies with regulatory oversight over the pipeline. While approving Line 3, the PUC required Enbridge to reimburse law enforcement agencies for all expenses incurred while policing protests against the pipeline. Tuma stated that the “whole idea came to me thanks to Enbridge.” During construction of Line 3 in 2020-2021, nearly 100 different law enforcement agencies from around Minnesota received a combined $8.6M from Enbridge. They made over 1000 arrests of protestors who were peacefully opposing the pipeline. While making these arrests, law enforcement deployed physical violence, chemical weapons, ‘pain compliance’ torture techniques, LRAD noise devices, K9 units, and had a border patrol helicopter descend on a protest of over one thousand, rotor washing everyone in potentially harmful drilling dust.

    It should come as no surprise that two of the biggest recipients of this law enforcement funding were the Minnesota State Patrol (MSP), and the DNR. The subsequent approval of pipeline permits by DNR constituted a major conflict of interest.

    This isn’t a single-issue critique though. Walz’s record on political issues beyond Line 3 deserves further scrutiny as well. The distressing lean into state-sponsored violence and oppression we witnessed around Line 3 was echoed during other pivotal moments during Walz’s tenure as Governor. For example, in 2020, the Minnesota State Patrol and DNR law enforcement officers invaded Minneapolis, along with the Minnesota National Guard, at the behest of Walz in order to crack down on the racial justice uprising following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police. Along with Minneapolis police, they exhibited violent behavior while specifically targeting journalists and medics. This violence was reflected in Walz’s disturbingly authoritarian rhetoric:

    In 2021, Walz had the Minnesota State Patrol join Brooklyn Center police in aggressively deploying chemical weapons and munitions near the homes of families in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota to violently suppress protesters after the police murdered Daunte Wright. Walz once again looked to his former colleagues at the Minnesota National Guard and verbally retaliated against working class union members for not allowing the military members and humvees at their Union Hall in St. Paul:

    This also wasn’t the only time Walz went against the labor movement. During the 2022 Minneapolis Teachers strike, he turned his back on them, not supporting the strike despite himself being a former teacher, and later coordinating with management. Then in 2023, he exempted the State’s largest hospital from union-backed nurse staffing and safety legislation. Finally, in 2024, Walz vetoed legislation that would have raised the minimum wage for rideshare drivers.

    this is what people are protesting about the US arming Israel, police reform, and higher wages just to name a few

    and it looks like Walz is actively against progress just like Harris disregarding the protesters at the convention