Washington, DC – Below is a column by Maribel Hastings from America’s Voice en Español translated to English from Spanish:
Now that the officially-nominated Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her vice-presidential running mate, the contrasts with the Republican duo of Donald Trump and JD Vance — who Walz categorizes as “weird” — could not be more evident.
To start, on immigration, the Democrats are not proposing raids and mass deportations like Trump and Vance, among many other practices the Republicans advocate for against immigrants, the rights of women and workers, and our country’s democracy.
Harris and Walz are embarking on a tour through states that are key to winning the White House, and voters will get to know their proposals. Born in Nebraska, Walz has been a teacher and a congressman. He is also an Army National Guard veteran.
He is a Democrat described throughout his career as a moderate, centrist, and now a progressive for the policies that Minnesota has implemented, like protecting the right to abortion and paid leave, among others. His presence seeks to appeal to white men who do not support Trump or who are undecided.. Or even those who support Trump because they have bought into his message, apparently without understanding that the former president’s policies threaten their interests.
On immigration, America’s Voice identified five points from Walz’s immigration record in Minnesota: his support for Dreamers and immigration reform; his support for extending driver’s licenses to undocumented people in his state for the logical reason of safety for all; his support for refugees; his opposition to Trump’s family separation policy; and his opposition, as well, to the border wall.
It has to be recognized that the unexpected Harris-Walz team is generating enthusiasm among the Democratic base and other political sectors that view Trump’s return to the White House with fear. There are echoes of Barack Obama’s rise in 2008, with his message of Hope and Change.
The Philadelphia rally to welcome Walz evoked memories of the enthusiasm that gripped the nation 16 years ago. And that stands in contrast with the Trump-Vance team — their negative, dark, divisive, and apocalyptic message and their extremist and retrograde rhetoric and proposals that have only intensified.
For example, August 3rd was the fifth anniversary of the massacre in El Paso, Texas — the worst attack on the Latino community in the history of the United States, perpetrated by a white supremacist who believed the Republican conspiracy theory that Hispanics were “invading” Texas via the border. But five years later, that rhetoric intensified as Republican behavior got worse.
Many thought that following the attempted assassination against him, Trump would change his ways. But no. Trump has said as much in his rallies, like a recent one in Minnesota. “They all say, ‘I think he’s changed…. Something affected him.’” And then he added, “No, I haven’t changed. Maybe I’ve gotten worse.”
There is no doubt about that because, in his appearances, he continues to exude the same poison and repeat the same lies on a range of topics, especially immigration.
One only has to see his chaotic and racist interview before the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), where he told a pack of lies and insulted Vice President Harris.
“She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she went – she became a Black person,” Trump declared, adding that “somebody” should investigate Harris’ identity—another example of the fact that specific strategies never change. Trump inserted himself into the 2008 presidential contest by questioning Obama’s birth certificate and whether he had been born in Hawaii and not Kenya, like his father.
In the same event, Trump returned to another tired and divisive Republican strategy: pitting African Americans against Hispanics, declaring that undocumented people are taking “Black jobs.”
Trump is also trying to distance himself from the Machiavellian Project 2025 by the Heritage Foundation, the road map for extreme public policies on various issues that would be implemented in a second Trump term — from restrictions on abortion to mass deportations. The fact that Project 2025 director Paul Dans resigned doesn’t mean the plan will disappear because its authors and promoters are former Trump officials, advisors, and allies. Project 2025 is the dream of Trump and ultra-conservatives, and that has not changed — whether it is called Project 2025 or not.
It remains to be seen how the positive vision of the Harris-Walz duo, with her contagious laugh — criticized, of course, by Trump — his joviality and charisma, and their common sense and inclusive proposals stack up against the retrograde and extremist vision of the Trump-Vance team. On November 5th, the voters will have the last word.
To read the Spanish version of this column, click here.
