“I believe in that old adage that as goes California, so goes the rest of the country.” – Kamala Harris

(The Center Square)—When Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential nominee, the Democrats were thrilled since he looks like someone who’d be at home on a tractor, sporting a straw hat while tending to his crops. The left believes his facade will persuade moderate and middle-class voters to move left and support Democrats in November. But, the left is counting chickens before they hatch.

It wasn’t just happenstance that Harris chose progressive Walz as her right hand comrade to run with her in November. Waltz is not a low profile progressive whose name happened to pop up. During his first term as governor, Walz was constrained by a Republican majority in the Senate. But in his second term, the Minnesota state government turned far left, as solid blue as California.

Walz is very open about his views and as governor he has put them on auction. He has positioned himself as another Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont. He revealed his philosophy on last week’s “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser call when he said, “Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.”

It usually takes months to vet a potential candidate for a high office. But since Biden was forced to step down by the DNC just before their convention, they didn’t have time to fully investigate Waltz’s background. As questions about his past and his policies have been revealed by opponents and the media, Democrats have been working overtime to re-image and hawk Walz to moderate voters.

It has been said that people judge you by the company you keep. When Harris announced that she had chosen Waltz as her running mate, those who were most excited about her choice include the progressive “Squad” members Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman of New York. Socialist Bernie Sanders also immediately expressed his approval.

“To me socialism means that we must work to reform a system that is corrupt.” – Bernie Sanders

Everyone already knows that Harris hails from the progressive bastion of progressive California. As a U.S. senator she gained the reputation as the most liberal member of the Senate in her first term. Harris’ record speaks for itself. She cast the most tie-breaking votes in Senate history to green-light the Democrats’ most radical, inflationary priorities. Her votes led to trillions of dollars of runaway spending by Democrats and the confirmation of many radical activist progressive federal judges.

Since Walz was a last minute pick by Harris, the American people did not know much about his policies or his past. And the liberal media did not have time to run cover for him like they’ve done for Harris since she’s been in office. Legislation Waltz has signed into law rivals that in California.

“I believe in diversity and I think the legislation I have signed into law proves this.” – Tim Walz

The seeming schism in Walz’s progressive ideological history has become a subject of red-hot national political debate since it was revealed that he was Harris’s running mate.

Since Walz was elected, Minnesota allows abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy. Walz overturned a former “born alive” provision that offered protections for babies who survived an abortion.

Walz believes government is the answer. He thinks government should over-rule parents if it does not like decisions they make. He signed a trans-refuge bill to “protect children from their parents” who come to his state for gender-affirming care, like puberty blockers or sex-change surgery.

Walz signed a bill to provide K-12 students, regardless of need, free breakfast and lunch. It has cost millions of dollars and he raised taxes to finance it. Giving free stuff to everyone buys votes and increases dependence on government but it’s paid for by taxpayers, not the leftist politicians.

In typical progressive fashion, Walz signed legislation that requires menstrual products, such as tampons and sanitary napkins, to be provided in both boys’ and girls’ public school bathrooms.

“Gov Walz wants to insure all those who menstruate have access to period supplies.” – Lacey Gero

Walz has bucked the national trend of many other governors and continues to raise taxes to finance his many progressive programs. Jared Walczak of the Tax Foundation said, “Gov. Walz’s tax record is notable because of how much it contrasts with broader national trends. Walz is rare among his peers, to dramatically increase taxes while other governors have championed tax cuts.”

In 2023, he passed a bill making illegal aliens living in the U.S. eligible for driver’s licenses. He proposed giving illegal aliens free health insurance from the state’s low-income insurance plan. Walz supports laws that forbid local law enforcement from informing federal authorities about the status of illegal aliens that they arrest.

Walz, like Harris, changes his policy support for survival. While he was in Congress, he represented a very conservative Minnesota district. He crossed the aisle many times and supported bills that his conservative constituents told him to pass. In fact, at one time GovTrack rated Walz the 12th most politically right member of the House Democratic Caucus. Of course that was then – and this is now.

Democrats claim Walz will “bring normality back to the chaotic political environment,” just as Harris and Biden once promised. But most people see Walz as anything but a return to normalcy. And the Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley contended that the Harris and Walz team will “make up the most radical, far-left, progressive presidential ticket in the history of our country.”

There are many reasons why people are leaving states like Minnesota and California, which rank in the bottom 10 for net migration. Blue state progressive governors are raising taxes to patronize the illegal aliens and identity groups, at the expense of services used by taxpayers. They are funding drug addicts and the homeless programs, which encourages more to come. Their insane climate laws and other Orwellian politics make living in a blue state impossible and the people want out.

If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz win the election and take control of the House and the Senate, in four years America will be a clone of California. With progressives running America, California will have unprecedented influence on the laws passed by Congress. As the first California Democrat to win the White House, Harris will charter policies that replicate California’s ideology for all America.

Harris’ positions are so extreme they make Orwell’s Big Brother look liberal. Harris is the biggest remake of a candidate in political history. And we’ll see the real Kamala Harris on Nov. 6.

“In our age, there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.” – George Orwell

“We do not seek to liberate blacks at the price of the humiliation of the whites.” -Martin Luther King

Unbiased civil liberties and rights is the most fundamental value for Americans. Yet sixty years ago, American citizens of all races, ages, sexes, colors, and religions were not entitled to harvest these benefits equally. In a republican nation where the majority could not disenfranchise the minority, it took average white and Black citizens to mitigate and rectify these heretical societal incongruities.

Martin Luther King united people of all colors to crusade against the Democrats’ segregation in the South, which powered the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the evils of segregation died with the Civil Rights Movement, The Civil Rights Act outlawed all discrimination against Americans based upon gender, race, color, age, nationality, religion and political beliefs. Unfortunately, too few realize this.

Former segregationist Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. But by the end of his first term in office, riots had broken out around our nation. His efforts to compensate for years of segregation and discrimination failed miserably.

“A leopard cannot change his stripes.” – Al Gore

Woke history does not reveal that Richard Nixon shaped the civil-rights landscape of today. He desegregated schools and nationalized the Voting Rights Act. He gave billions to Black colleges. He created affirmative action hiring and education goals for government colleges and business.

From Nixon’s friendship with Martin Luther King, to his last days in office shadowed by Watergate, Nixon made time to meet with Black college presidents to see how he could best execute the Civil Rights Act. Black business leader Robert Brown, Nixon’s head of the civil rights commission, said, “Richard Nixon did more for middle class Black America than any president in American history.”

Since Richard Nixon left office, we’ve had affirmative action programs and federal mandates to “fill quotas” for corporations, college admissions and hiring. Although The Civil Rights Act protects the rights of all Americans equally, progressives tell identity groups it did nothing for them. If you dare to challenge a progressive about their lies, deception and disinformation, they claim you are racist.

Wokes purposely wrote Richard Nixon’s civil rights accomplishments out of history. If they didn’t, they could never accuse white people and the GOP of racism against Blacks: Yet they benefited most from them.

“A good job and a good education are important civil rights.” – Richard Nixon

Progressives say the Civil Rights Act is racist since it protects everyone equally. Their new social formula is “DEI.” Since “quotas” are unconstitutional, to appeal to identity groups, they call quotas “diversity.” They equate “equality” as more “ethnic groups” than whites. The newest twist in their portfolio is “inclusion.” All identity groups should feel happy and cared for in school and on the job.

Since most colleges are breeding grounds for new progressives, they have no problems with DEI requirements. Although DEI provisions are unconstitutional, they flaunt them proudly. And it’s also contagious. Since the election of Barack Obama, corporations now have DEI requirements also.

You can’t force a job applicant to say they will engage in social engineering. Yet DEI testaments are part of applications for college admission and for academic jobs. DEI testaments say you will cohere to the tenets of DEI. You are judged on how you will adhere to a companies enforcement of Critical Race Theory. They are read and judged before work experience and academic credentials are ever assessed.

“We hire the best people for the job and never think of their race.” – Steve Jobs.

If you don’t meet the companies social philosophy for DEI, your job application will be trashed. No applicant who says they “will treat all people equally” will be hired. You dare not repeat what Dr. King said: “People should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”

Companies designate specific jobs for ethnic applicants, which is against the law. They know it is illegal but do it to appease wokes and not fall in disfavor with government and liberal media.

“We seek to liberate American society and to help all people liberate themselves.” – Martin Luther King

It isn’t surprising that most diversity programs aren’t increasing diversity. Despite a few new bells whistles and buzz words used by big tech data firms, companies are basically doubling down on the same approaches they’ve used since the 1960s. DEI testaments are just for widow dressing.

Harvard business school analyzed three decades of data from over 800 U.S. firms and consulted with hundreds of HR managers. The majority said DEI doesn’t work. They believe they get better results without control tactics. It’s more effective for managers to solve problems with on-the-job contact with female and minority workers. This promotes fair and unbiased social accountability.

HR managers claimed that’s why interventions, such as targeted college recruitment, mentoring programs, self-managed teams, and task forces have boosted diversity in businesses. The most effective solutions aren’t designed with diversity in mind. They work because they don’t have to meet ethnic or gender quotas. Neither the interviewer nor applicant is intimidated or pressured.

Freethinker Robert Ingersoll once said, “An opportunity given to one is taken from another.” The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to protect the rights of all Americans equally. Richard Nixon created programs to address concerns about enforcing it. The quota systems of the 60s and 70s worked for some and deprived others of opportunities and that is why they were declared illegal.

Major league sports is dominated by minority athletes, especially professional basketball. Should an owner of an NBA franchise be forced to have an equal number of white and Black players on his team? During the next NFL draft, will they make team owners choose players by race or ethnicity?

According to Census data, white men make up 31% of the population while Black men make up 8%. Since white males have all but disappeared from TV commercials, does DEI mean that we must reverse this lopsided trend and start giving acting jobs to more white male Americans again?

Employers should focus recruitment efforts on sources that are likely to provide a diverse pool of candidates. But they cannot legally state a preference for candidates of any race or gender. Ideally, targeted recruitment will increase the diversity of the candidate pools from which an employer is selecting. Through a neutral selection process, the workforce will naturally become more diverse. Besides being unconstitutional, there is no need to implement arbitrary hiring goals or use race in any way in the hiring process. Any hiring practice that looks like a quota is a quota.

“Please forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.” – Robert Frost

Article cross-posted from The Center Square.