• archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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      11 months ago

      Tim Walz, Shawn Fain, AOC…

      In Newsom’s defense, his state is overrun with the largest, most politically-active companies on the planet - but I can’t say he’s actually done much to fundamentally improve working-class conditions or addressed housing affordability or COL. He’s applied a lot of band-aids, though.

      He’s a loud voice in a liberal state, but he’s essentially just a younger Biden. He does the most optically-left thing he can without ruffling any feathers of the biggest DNC donors.

      • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Fuck yeah. Great selection! I wish we were still on trajectory for AOC, but 2016 set us back decades overnight. That’s how we got Biden. Walz is a great milk toast caring Dem, definitely great in Midwest, not sure about angry rust belt, don’t know his policy stances as well. Fain… oh man. That MF cares about us. He can get the Bernie vote, the wannabe libertarian vote, etc

        I might feel slightly less critical about what Gavin done here than I’m imagining your sentiment, but I can’t say you’re wrong, especially on housing. You’re absolutely right he hasn’t done the real work to make systemic changes. I do think we have tons of QoL improvements.

        To be fair, that’s my exact point. Biden’s most unelectable quality is his age. Newsom’s perfectly polished and architected candidate for this age. And he’s hot and charming. Very electable. Could probably even spin his ex for some kind of GOP brownie points?

        • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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          11 months ago

          On the contrary, Walz has been anything but milquetoast, he’s just not as publicity-oriented as Newsom. He’s passed a number of extremely popular progressive policies, including a campaign finance reform banning corporate contributions from companies who have 5% or more foreign ownership (that’s poised to be struck down, but still an unambiguous signal against monied interests). Minnesota also has one of the lowest inflation rates in the country.

          He’s done his wildly progressive legislating while lowering taxes and running a surplus.

          But Newsom is the Democratic darling because he’s… Hot? Idk what makes him a good candidate other than his optics, and even then, he’d have almost as bad a time as AOC would agaist a reactionary GOP, but with none of the desirable progressive policies we actually need. I’m honestly a little frustrated by this sentiment… He’s a neoliberal candidate that has no other actual qualifications other than his media literacy and age, but he’s also basically the GOP’s definition of ‘Elite-westcost-liberal’. I think he’s the worst of the losing choices.