Josh Shapiro was good, but he's no Tim Walz
Donald Trump has taken to calling Kamala Harris "Kamabla" in his social media posts.
Which at first glance seems minor, one of those tiny things that flies by unchallenged in the endless media whirlwind. The Washington Post counted 30,573 lies and misleading statements during the four years of the Trump presidency; to focus on the latest addition seems futile. By the time you've remarked on it, it's already out of date.
Trump is fond of tagging childish nicknames on his opponents. But "Kamabla" resonates more, at least with me. Mangling someone's name is a classic racist go-to move. The "What kinda funny name is THAT?" Grin is implied. I get "Bergstein" and "Steingold" and "Goldstein" and a dozen variants in my emails, all signs that I'm about to read the thoughts — to stretch the term — of some sneering antisemite who feels compelled to weigh in on today's topic.
Or not read them. Why bother? Racism, remember, is a form of ignorance — you're not perceiving the world as it is, but through the crazy kaleidoscope lens of your own obsessive fears. Who cares what dumb haters think? And the funny thing is, egotism is such an intrinsic part of being a bigot, the thought that they've been disregarded as beneath contempt doesn't occur to them. I have people who've been gibbering in my spam folder, ignored, for years.
But the Republican presidential candidate cannot be dismissed so easily. Even though none of this is news. His behavior hasn't changed since he came down that brass escalator in the garish lobby of Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, and started slurring Mexicans as criminals and rapists. I won't categorize how he's been since then . Either you figured it out long ago or you never will.
Nearly a decade. No wonder we're all loopy. No wonder Joe Biden bowing out of the race caused Democrats to explode with joy, optimism and energy. Hope dawned. Maybe the country can finally break the spell.
This has been a particularly exuberant week for Democrats, since Harris announced her running mate is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Walz wasn't on my radar. But Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was. Buttigieg, the sharpest razor wit in politics, could have vivisected Trump and Vance for the next three months.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also was on my radar. He's a guy who can deliver a verbal broadside and could be expected to win his own battleground state. Plus, he's Jewish — as with Sandy Koufax, you like to see your guy on the mound, striking 'em out.
Both men had drawbacks. Buttigieg is gay, so picking him would churn the Republican waters — not that they wouldn't churn anyway — plus give pause to some Democrats who harbor anti-gay bias. Sure, it would be cool to have a gay vice president — a sign that maybe our country isn't really a nest of hidebound religious loons who live their lives in a sex panic frenzy. But prejudice isn't something people gladly admit to pollsters, and Democrats may not want to bet the nation's democracy on just how progressive people are in their secret hearts, then wake up Nov. 6 and find out they were wrong.
Shapiro being Jewish, while catnip to Jews, would have merely been a drawback last year. But since Oct. 7, it has become an anchor, as the outrage of Palestinians — and their undergraduate allies — over the Israel-Hamas war tends to drift from Israelis to Zionists to Jews in general. And Shapiro is no random member of the Tribe, but as governor shut down campus protest in a way that Palestinian activists didn't like.
“Somebody like Shapiro would be an absolute disaster since he essentially has made it seem as if the Palestinians don’t have any rights to freedom or self-determination or anything,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, while Harris was still pondering her choice.
Some Jews chose to register displeasure at Shapiro being passed over. Me, I understand the Democrats' goal here is to win, and if Harris-Walz has a slightly better chance at victory than Harris-Shapiro, then Harris-Walz it is. Would you rather lose with your guy, or win with somebody else? You can work at perfecting American society afterward.
That's called strategic thinking. The idea that people unhappy with some current administration policy are going to withhold their support, or back the guy who would be much, much worse, is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Maybe Jews are unduly attached to our often considerable noses. But doing that just isn't smart.