W.J. Astore

Hillary Clinton has selected her vice president and it’s Tim Kaine from Virginia.  Kaine is known as steady, Catholic, in favor of “free” (corporate) trade agreements like the TPP, a man with foreign policy experience, and also a man with the right pedigree (Harvard-educated lawyer).  Being from Virginia, naturally he’s considered to bring “balance” to the ticket.

But what about all those progressive passions that Bernie Sanders mobilized?  What about tapping that movement?  What about a candidate like Elizabeth Warren?  By choosing Kaine, Hillary is saying, Forget all that, Democrats.  I’m in charge here, and they’ll be no tomfoolery about progressive issues like health care or education or bank reform.  They’ll be no reform of a “rigged system” because we are the rigged system and we like it that way, thank you very much.

Hillary is banking that progressives have nowhere else to go, so to speak.  They’re not going to vote for Trump.  Sure, a few might go Green or Libertarian.  But most will stay with her, Hillary believes, as the best and only chance to keep Trump at bay.  And perhaps she’s right.

An interesting statement from a puff piece at the New York Times: “He’s a company man,” said Dan Allen, who was an adviser to George Allen (no relation), the Republican Mr. Kaine beat in 2012 to win his Senate seat. “He was in Mark Warner’s footsteps as lieutenant governor, then he was in the footsteps of Obama. From a Clinton standpoint, this is a guy who’s shown a pattern of, he’s more than willing to be a follower in the footsteps of whomever is the leader.”

That makes perfect sense.  Hillary wouldn’t want a VP who would eclipse her.  Elizabeth Warren would have.  Plus Warren is tough-minded, a fighter, an independent thinker.  Hillary’s number one priority has always been herself and keeping those beneath her loyal and subservient.  Seems like Kaine fits the bill.

In the aftermath of the Tim Kaine choice, if anyone out there still believes in a “progressive” Hillary, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn, some great vacation land in the swamps of Florida …