• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    They push a center-right president onto the stage

    Like, 90% of the US Senate is center-right or worse. You’re in a country that is governed overwhelmingly to the right of the popular political view. I don’t think the VP pick is going to meaningfully shift any of that. Running Walz as your VP isn’t going to turn the US Senate into the Minnesota Governor’s Mansion.

    How about you offer actual progressives some goddamn enticement for once and offer it to Jamaal Bowman, who the Dems primaried in favor of a genocidal AIPAC stooge?

    Because the US has a huge geopolitical strategic interest in staying friendly with Israel and a vanishingly small interest in cultivating support among progressive New Yorkers.

    • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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      3 months ago

      Because the US has a huge geopolitical strategic interest in staying friendly with Israel and a vanishingly small interest in cultivating support among progressive New Yorkers.

      This is an excellent explanation for the way things are but a really terrible reason to keep them that way

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Am I the only one who thinks we need to pick someone no older than ~50 for VP? Based on the idea that VP is an understudy position?

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It’s not an understudy position. The role of VP has historically been a way to “balance the ticket” between factions in the party. So, a Kennedy from Massachusetts and Johnson from Texas. Or California’s Reagan with a Connecticut Bush.

        More recently, the VP has been a means of whipping votes in the House (Cheney and Ford) or the Senate (Gore, Biden, Pence) and raising money from affiliate donor networks (all of the above, but Harris and Vance more than ever).

        If you want a Presidential job training program, look to the governor’s mansion or the State Department. But by the time you’re VP, you’re not training. You’re in the game.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          It’s absolutely been used as an under study position in the past. It can be all those things too.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It’s absolutely been used as an under study position in the past.

            Name one VP who was a practical understudy for the job of President and I’ll name you ten that were equally if not more qualified for the job.