The temptation among Republicans, and even Democrats discontented by the anti-Israel drift within their party, will be to ascribe the decision to pass over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and instead go with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as Harris’s vice presidential pick, to antisemitism. But while antisemitism may have indeed played a role, the real insight we should glean from this pick is about who truly wields power in the Democratic Party.
Many inquiring minds will likely ask how Shapiro, the popular governor of a swing state, the toast of donors, the media, and party elites, and, according to some, Barack Obama’s protégé, was passed over in favor of a largely unknown Midwestern governor whose effort to pander to extremists rather than confront them transformed the event of George Floyd’s death into a national cataclysm.
To be sure, those looking for the influence of antisemitism behind the curtain of Harris’s decision-making won’t have to search very hard. From the moment he emerged as a leading contender for Vice President, Shapiro has been the recipient of a concerted campaign to paint him as unacceptable for his pro-Israel views.
Many of these “views” were not really views at all, but intrinsic parts of his identity – teenage trips to Israel, which were painted as service in the IDF, or his standing with students singled out in class for their perceived Judaism.
Where slander did not work, threats were employed. It was communicated in public by leading left-wing figures that selecting Shapiro would risk “splitting the party.” While activists were explicit about the violence they intended for the DNC Convention and fall campaign if Harris chose a Jew as her running mate, politicians like Nancy Pelosi played a double game. They expressed their “deep admiration” for Shapiro while expressing “concerns” about the possible backlash among “others.”
As with Biden’s withdrawal, the message was clear: When Harris was considering whether she could rally her troops around a Shapiro pick, her commanders indicated quite clearly that while of course they personally would do what they could, they could not speak for their colleagues.
Therein lies the deeper significance of Harris’ decision. We do not truly know who Harris would have chosen as her vice president. The decision was no more left to her than Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw was left to him. Harris was warned by those such as Nancy Pelosi who had already removed one president that they believed the choice of Josh Shapiro, whom they of course respected, would be deeply unwise.
In the first test of Harris’s authority as a nominee, she crumbled. For all of the racially segregated Zoom calls and rappers opening her events, none of it granted her an ounce of authority. Donald Trump is often condemned for attacking his own party’s governors and legislators. Harris, in her first test, folded like a cheap tent.
This failure exposed the void at the heart of Harris’s candidacy – that she is merely an empty shell, a vessel of those who placed her in power. Her website has no issues page. She is a candidate without a platform. A woman without a history. A politician without a political base.
But most alarmingly for the American people, Harris is a potential President who can only aspire to be what she has been her entire career – a vehicle for the influence and ambitions of others. For anyone confused about the exuberance and glee of Democrat elected officials imagining a President Kamala Harris, the answer is anything, with only their own squabbling over the spoils a risk.
The move against Joe Biden may have begun as an act of desperation among Democrats, but it rapidly transformed into an opportunity for the Pelosis of the world to turn the country into their playground. The idea that they would share power with anyone, whether Obama or an independently-minded figure like Josh Shapiro or Mark Kelly, is unthinkable.
To understand that their concerns were not ideological, look no further than how Gavin Newsom was excluded from the process. Gavin’s sins were not that he is too far left or too far right, but rather that he has his own ambitions. Leaks indicate that sin too doomed Shapiro. Reportedly Harris was turned off from Shapiro over “concerns his personal ambitions would cause him to upstage/override Harris” and the video produced by the Mayor of Philadelphia’s team “solidified these concerns”.
Antisemitism was, then, what it has been across the eons: a weapon for small men and women to achieve more selfish goals; namely, in this case, to maintain the grasp on power they have so recently usurped and understand they wield without the legitimacy of election or merit.
Tim Walz is not a sop to the left, or to pro-Palestinian forces. He is in fact the perfect complement to Harris. In Minnesota over the past six years, Tim Walz has performed admirably as a puppet of the same cabal now running the Democrat Party and Kamala Harris’s campaign. With his election, their control of the American government would be complete.
Walz is many things. Democrats will say he was one of the most decorated enlisted personnel in the Army, that he was a championship-winning High School football coach in rural Minnesota, and then represented a Trump district for a decade in the U.S. House. Expect Republicans to attack him as a down-the-line leftist who mismanaged the George Floyd riots and whose governorship saw a radical restructuring of Minnesota, including enshrining abortion until the moment of birth into law, stripping parental rights from those who disapproved of youth gender transition, and a host of left-wing social priorities.
Both are true. Democrats will say that what matters is who Walz is. Republicans will point to what he has done and will do. The difference is that Republicans are honest about what they care about. Democrats do not care about who Walz is. They are happy to dismiss military service when it comes to JD Vance’s time in the Marines. They were attracted to Walz because of what he could do for them – the things they were not certain a Mark Kelly, Josh Shapiro, or Gavin Newsom would.
Walz appears to view politics in a friend-foe manner, perhaps a legacy of his time as a high school football coach. Advancing partisan goals is the equivalent of advancing down the field. Passing partisan priorities is a touchdown. He does not question the nature of these priorities, much less their wisdom, any more than he would question why his football team is advancing in the direction they are. The other team is in front of them and the touchdown line is that way.
The vice presidential selection took place in the context of a party without a leader. Kamala may be the presumptive nominee, but she never won a single primary in either 2020 or 2024. She is where she is because Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jefferies, and various elites including donors placed her there. The Democratic Party is not being run by her, even assuming she was capable of running it given her past record. Having installed someone with no political base and no values who is entirely dependent upon them, those elites weren’t about to share power.
Walz is not merely going to be unable to challenge the Democrat establishment. There is no evidence from his record the thought would even enter his head. He is loyal to the team, in this case the party.
The party does not owe loyalty to him. His priority is to advance their priorities. Their priority is not to advance him, and there is little evidence it occurred to him to have priorities in the first place. He merely waited to see what the “hive mind” came up with and then tried to pass it – one reason why he is such a hero to progressives. He isn’t one of them. It is even better. He sees himself as their subordinate.
That is what makes him not only the perfect vice president for Harris but the ideal future president for Democratic elites.
Who can forgive them for being exuberant? They are merely imagining what can be, unburdened by what has been, and licking their chops.
The rest of us, however, should be afraid. Very afraid. Kamala Harris has failed yet another test of leadership. The American people may pay the price.
Walter Samuel is the pseudonym of a prolific international affairs writer and academic. He has worked in Washington as well as in London and Asia, and holds a Doctorate in International History.
