If you ask me, I’m upset no one picked up that this consideration was sexist and racist, although it is indeed the best choice for her to win, which reflects how bad US can’t get over race and gender.
Is Trump the DEI hire?
Yes, he was the first orange person to be hired as president. He was hired despite Hillary getting more votes because he was the DEI candidate.
was hired despite Hillary getting more votes because
he was the DEI candidateof special admission processes.orange person
Oh damn, is oompa-loompa no longer considered acceptable?
Only orange people can say that word now.
I need more of these critiques to download.
This meme is so inaccurate. Everyone knows he can’t say Kamala. Isn’t it weird people think you should elect someone who can’t even pronounce someone’s name?
It’s worse than that - it’s like how he and his cronies choose not to call her “Harris” like everyone else calls him “Trump” or the president “Biden.” No one says “Joe,” or “Donald,” or “Barack.” So to add insult to disrespectful injury, they refuse to actually say her name correctly. Hence the “Kamabla” shit he’s been doing too.
I’ve noticed that too. It was the same with “Hillary.”
Using the last name is a sign of respect that they don’t think women deserve.
Yeah I almost used her as an example but I didn’t want to deal with the inevitable “it’s so she isn’t confused with her husband.
I was having this conversation the other day. Pelosi came up as a counterexample.
Now I’m not sure where the line is between subtle disrespect and simply using the more distinctive part of a candidate’s name.
I do see a lot of republicans just call her “Nancy” but she definitely gets more references to her last name
Huh, I haven’t really heard people call her “Nancy”. Last time I recall her coming up amongst Republicans, it was “Pelosi” with a reference to the attack on her husband.
“Kamala” is hard to pronounce, yet they never had a problem with “Barack Hussein Obama pause for the scary middle-eastern/Islamic-sounding name to sink into racist audience”
And I love when Palin got called out directly for that and she backpedaled so hard, trying to make it sound like they always do that with everyone and started rattling off republican full names like that made a single bit of difference…
Can we get a truth-o-meter to scrutinize all candidates during debates like they do in futurama?
Exactly! It’s not hard to pronounce, it’s just not intuitive. I used to say “Kuh-MAH-luh” too. One correction and I stopped. “Kah-mah-la” is easy for native English speakers. They are perfectly capable of saying it they just don’t want to.
The one thing I find difficult about it is that I’ve heard it mispronounced so many times, I have to consciously think about which version is correct. I blame right-wing assholes for that.
Valid
His handlers have just barely managed to stop him from calling her “Kamablack”.
Yeah, so was Biden when he was VP.
Everyone knows this, I do t know why so many people are treating it like a revelation. Mainstream news was openly saying it as soon as she announced she was running.
Her VP would be an older white guy for “diversity” of the ticket.
meanwhile, trump who will claim he’s “most qualified” for the job, REFUSES to let his college transcripts go public. i’m going to go out on a limb (except, not) and say he cheated his way through college, as with everything else, OR he’s a straight D student, hilariously
this is of course ignoring all the lying, raping, treasoning, failed businesses, failed presidencies, and other wannabe con man shit.
but people will still vote for him, because people are stupid gullible suckers
Even if you just randomly selected from the available options, 3/4 of them are older white guys.
Almost all VPs are DEI hires.
Trump chose Pence because he had government experience and his religious conservatism helped reassure the GOP’s religious voters.
Biden choosing Harris:
Biden committed to selecting a woman as his running mate … He noted that his selection would likely be younger than he is
Obama choosing Biden:
Obama recalled that he and his advisers Axelrod and Plouffe wondered if voters would accept a ticket of “two relatively young, inexperienced, and liberal civil rights attorneys” and ultimately Obama felt the contrast between him and Biden was a strength, and that Biden being older than Obama would reassure those voters who were concerned that Obama was too young to be president
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Democratic_Party_vice_presidential_candidate_selection
Bush Jr. choosing Cheney
By picking Cheney, Bush had a running mate who had years of experience as well as an extensive foreign policy expertise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Republican_Party_vice_presidential_candidate_selection
Clinton was an exception:
In making the selection, Clinton emphasized Gore’s experience with foreign policy and environmental issues.[1] Clinton’s choice of a fellow young southern centrist defied conventional wisdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Democratic_Party_vice_presidential_candidate_selection
This pattern goes through the years. If the presidential candidate is a northerner, they often pick a southerner. If he’s old, he chooses a younger VP candidate. If he’s from a wealthy background, he chooses someone who has a more humble background. If he lacks political experience, he chooses someone who has it. If he lacks international experience, he chooses someone who has it.
All VPs are DEI hires, at least to some extent. It’s accepted that if the two candidates are too similar that the ticket will fail.
If he lacks political experience, he chooses someone who has it. If he lacks international experience, he chooses someone who has it.
I mean, this just sounds like good teamwork
Fundamentally DEI is about good teamwork. You want a diverse team of people with different backgrounds and experiences.
The repubs have successfully tricked a large number of people (including liberals/centrists) into accepting their premise that DEI is a bad thing. When they accuse someone of being a DEI hire the response shouldn’t have been “nuh-uh, she was chosen for her merits,” it should have been “so what? What makes you think she’s not up to the job?”
All VPs are basically picked because of what they are more than who they are. Since there aren’t a lot of actual duties assigned by the constitution, VPs are just picked to help win the election. That means their age, gender, skin color, birthplace, etc are more important than their achievements. That means almost all VPs, including Vance, are “DEI hires.”
I’d argue Walz bucks this trend, at least to a certain degree. His progressive policy and seemingly unwavering integrity seems to be a huge reason he was picked. They’ve leaned into his achievements and republicans are desperately grasping at straws trying to criticize him.
Yeah, I kinda wish Walz was the candidate instead, based on his progressivism and integrity.
8 years of Harris and then 8 years of Walz.
16 years isn’t much in the grand scheme but maybe in that time The Left can wake up and mobilize and actually make some progress towards election reforms so we can start un-fucking the last 50 years of GOP-Heritage Foundation Trickledown Reaganomics Bullshit that’s destroying the country.
Walz Ocasio-Cortez 2032?
Completely agree. He also just seems like a better candidate vibe wise so far, he’s funny and endearing in a way Kamala is not. Although I do vibe with Kamala’s dorky/weird moments that so many seem to criticize.
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It’s still about perception over tangible benefits, though. He’s not chosen because he’ll make progressive decisions, he’s chosen because he helps encourages progressives to vote come November. Just like if he was black or hispanic would help push those demographics to vote in the general election.
I think that VPs are also a deterrent of presidential assassination. If the VP is seen as worse than the president by the opposing party members, then no one will try to assassinate the president. However, if the VP is better, that president’s life can be much shorter.
Would the Republicans prefer Walz as president? If yes, then he is a bad selection for VP. If no, Harris is safer as president.
Polling wise VP’s have historically changed very little in elections.
He’s the token white dude!
I wish to have that job one day. I may even be overqualified as I’m quite pale.
I mean he did legalize weed… Token indeed🍃
Yes because a black woman needs a white man to “balance” the fact… :)
America is a very strange country.
I’m not saying it’s good (because it’s not) but I’m unfortunately pretty certain they’re correct.
There’s a difference in saying something sexist and racist to be sexist and racist vs being practical due to other people’s sexism and racism.
I don’t like it any more than you, but I’m afraid they’re right. While the country might benefit from two women, two POC, two women of color any variation thereupon, they might not have the best chance in certain (usually older) demographics. And unfortunately this isn’t a contest we can pick the morally right choice, lose with dignity, and still come out okay.
“Stand in the ashes of a [Million] dead and ask them if honor matters… Their silence is your answer.”
After going through project 2025, I do not think I am being dramatic or hyperbolic with that video game quote.
Looked at pragmatically, I feel like the more varied viewpoints and ideas you can get about an issue the better solution you can find. It makes sense to surround yourself with advisers who aren’t carbon copies of you. People who’ve had different experiences and can bring additional skills to the table. Advisers that can say “consider it from this angle” or “if we do this thing, the consequences could be…”
If you had told me in 2008 that electing the first black man President would create racial issues in the US, I would have said, that’s fine, we need to get passed this. If you had told me that electing Obama would have lead to President Trump, I may have voted for McCain. (Assuming I believed the foretelling)
So instead of giving Obama eight years to try to patch things up before another Republican continued the USA’s march to fascism you’d have voted to put another Republican in right away and speed-run the whole process?
When does it get better though? If we’re always tempering the appearance of marginalized people in leadership roles, i fear generations will keep growing up with a prejudice against it
It gets better when children grow up being taught that bigotry is unacceptable. Ignoring the effects of bigotry isn’t how you do that.
I think AOC would have been a safer pick for VP than Walz, what with Walz’ record of deploying the national guard. He’s just a little bit too controversial. Harris needed to pick a running mate who would have given her an easy win. It’s too late to change it now but I’m disappointed she picked the hard route. I’m not sure we can afford to do that this election.
AOC wouldn’t win Harris the swing vote. I love AOC, don’t get me wrong, but with two women on the ticket, it’s too easy for conservatives to paint the duo as “crazy” or “radical.” Sexism remains alive and well here. People still believe the stereotypes and are easily influenced by dog whistles, especially here in the Midwest.
I hope that we get to the point where this isn’t a concern, but as it stands now, we have never had a woman in charge, and a lot of people are afraid of the unknown, so they wouldn’t like the idea of something new on both the presidential front as well as the VP front.
That’s on top of the fact that AOC is from NY and Harris is from CA. We are already irritated that a majority of people in office (and the country) ignore the “flyover” states even though we do a lot for the country (and have really cool cultural and fun places to visit, but this addendum is clearly biased). It really does matter a lot that Walz is one of us. He gets us in a way that people from the coast states don’t. That will influence a lot of votes, and two midwestern states are considered swing states - i.e. states that Harris absolutely NEEDS on her side.
Swing voters here don’t care as much about deploying the national guard. In fact, it’s lauded by a lot of people, including liberals/democrats. Midwesterners are okay with civil disobedience, but only if it’s not unnecessarily destructive or if there isn’t an attempt to gain simply for yourself (ex: looting). I’m not saying that that is what happened when the guard was deployed or that it’s a realistic or correct belief, but in reality, the media painted it that way, so people believe what they were told. So, very few here are holding something like that against him.
I don’t know of anyone in my region who would consider Walz to be truly controversial, and certainly, they think of him as way less controversial than AOC. They might disagree with Walz’s policies or opinions, but they don’t think he’s controversial. Here, AOC’s painted as a pot stirrer and a crazy lady. To reiterate, I don’t agree with this view of AOC, and I respect her immensely, but it would be foolish to ignore the fact that a lot of other people do agree with it. Walz, because of his race, age, cultural background, and experience, is a thousand times more electable than AOC when you’re looking at it from a national perspective.
It really is. Speaking as someone residing here. Send help pls
You shouldn’t eliminate someone just because they are a 60 year old white guy. He has an extensive track record of getting progressive policies passed with a 1 vote majority. By your logic, no one should be touting Bernie who is just as white and older.
He’s not even a boomer, he’s gen x.
If you care about his gender and race, YOU are part of the problem.
Most people care, and in a democratic election is about what most people care, not what an individual cares.
What happened to merit?
Walz seems to have pretty good merit, I think
I have no idea anymore. Politics is a cult of personality now. And one’s gender and sexual identity has apparently become part of that.
It’d be really cool if it were about the politics again.
That’s what I’m saying. Can we stop focusing on people’s appearance and instead pay more attention to what they have to say and their ideas?
Man, and I thought the Olympic boxer drama was disappointing. People really just want to tear each other down for no good reason.
It’s about everyone’s perception about how much other people will care.
All VP picks are DEI hires.
Mike pence?
They went for white instead of orange.
He was to build a bridge to the evangelicals, they were all originally super skeptical of trump and needed pence.
In some circles they were voting for trump, hoping he got impeached so they could have pence.
All of that has shifted and Trump is their second coming, but originally, it was not like this.
Thats fucking goofy. The USA has such stupid politics
Why do you think about US politics in the shower?
Same reason we think about mistakes we made in high school while we’re trying to go to sleep?
Some people get off to politics.
It haunts us like the spectre of death.
Wow yeah, I guess I never sat around thinking “How can I make myself more depressed”
Why don’t you? This community probably confuses you greatly
Its “Walz”, no t, and yeah, Daily Show already made that association yesterday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1geBpDjYb7c within the first minute of the clip.
Thanks, corrected the autocorrect
Would be interesting to see the GOP try to run with this messaging. As much as they hate “dei hires” they would jump all over that part, but seeing that it benefitted a white male would likely make them short circuit.
Maybe, I think, it’s a possibility, that perhaps he is fit to be a VP…
I didn’t consider his gender and race and I liked his policies, until I read about aipac and Palestine.
To be fair, visible representation is arguably kind of the job description of (or part of) a head of state.
there are no black people, or white people. just shades of brown from light brown to dark brown.
I can’t believe we still use that antiquated differentiator. there can be both “white” and “black” people in the same ethnic group so it’s means next to nothing
Missing the forest for the trees or whatever. It’s not about skin colour but how society perceives and treats you. If Kamala isn’t black then why is she being called a DEI hire when Hilary Clinton never was?
Only a certain group called her a DEI hire… and only because they cant say what they reallly mean without massive backlash…
My point is that society perceives her as a black women. Saying shit like “there are no black people” is moronic in a society that values and scrutinizes race as much as ours does.
I don’t know about being called a DEI hire, but I DO remember Hillary being called the worst possible option. I DON’T recall anyone calling Harris the worst possible option. Oddly enough in 2024, that would be Biden.
