The progressive left is fuming over Hillary Clinton’s choice in a Vice-Presidential nominee: Mayor, Lieutenant Governor, Governor, Senator, never-lost-an-election Tim Kaine of Virginia. After Bernie Sanders’ extended rebellion against the Democratic Party’s establishment and its moderate political philosophy, Sanders’s supporters will have little to show for it. Aside from Hillary Clinton’s rhetorical drift toward more progressive policies, nothing has been won, little has changed, and another unpopular major party nominee plods forward into the general election.
Senator Kaine’s recently stated opposition to the major Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal the Obama administration has been putting together since 2008 is somewhat dubious, given that he spearheaded several measures that gave the President fast-track trade authority to negotiate the deal without fear of amendment in Congress. Kaine’s outspoken support of free trade agreements, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is only one of many issues that gives those in the grassroots progressive movements around the country serious pause.
Kaine is personally opposed to abortion, though he is “largely inclined to keep the law out of women’s reproductive decisions,” believing it to be a moral choice rather than something the law should address. Additionally, he has been a vocal proponent of offshore drilling and clean coal technology, giving him a shaky reputation with environmentalists that has only been slightly recovered by his opposition to fracking in national parks. As the New York Times stated, Senator Kaine has “…a reputation as a pragmatic consensus builder.” If the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders has shown anything, the activists are tired of supporting candidates seen as pragmatic and deal-makers.
To paraphrase Donald Trump, the Democratic Party’s establishment has had so much winning that they are tired of winning. In every battle with its youthful and unapologetically left-wing grassroots, the Democratic Party has claimed victory, crushing dissent and pushing Secretary Clinton ever closer to her coronation at the Democratic National Convention. Time and again, the party has ignored its grassroots and Donald Trump is walking, talking, orange proof of what can happen when a political party goes too long without listening to the voters who support it. The Democrats should take notice.
Of course, Hillary Clinton has taken some notice of the left-wing rebellion in her party, adopting Elizabeth Warren-esque rhetoric on the regulation of Wall Street and the minimum wage in contradiction to all economic evidence. Despite that, she did what candidates have traditionally done in close presidential races, getting a popular politician from a swing state to serve as her running mate in order to increase her chances of winning that state. Tim Kaine, as a Senator from Virginia who is well-liked by both Republicans and Democrats, fits that description perfectly.
Because he is a perfectly logical choice firmly in step with the center-left congressional wing of his own party, Senator Kaine is seen by progressives as a moderate, a squish, and a sellout. The same labels have been applied to the Vice-Presidential candidates of the Libertarian and Republican Parties for their abilities to compromise and govern their states effectively, alienating purist sections of each party’s base. Bill Weld is a libertarian centrist, Mike Pence is a mainline conservative, and Tim Kaine is a liberal. Hillary did not choose a radical progressive; she chose someone who could win.