It is no secret that I’m not now, nor have I ever been, a fan of Hillary Clinton. She is a slimy, highly regressive, conservative Democrat. She was and still is in favor of TPP and fracking and stands with the big banks that are quickly destroying our economy. With all of that being said, I semi-endorsed her when it became apparent that she would not be indicted and Bernie Sanders, in fact, had a zero percent chance of becoming the party’s nominee. I stated that if you are a liberal and a progressive that lives in a deep blue or deep red state, you should listen to your conscious and vote for the only real progressive in the race at this point, the Green Party’s Jill Stein. However, if you live in a state that is a real toss up, you should hold your nose, drink a glass of whiskey and vote for Hillary Clinton. I still stand by that way of thinking, but something very significant happened when it was announced at the convention that Virginia senator, Tim Kaine, was selected as Clinton's running mate. Was Tim Kaine a good and sound choice? No.

Many people within the Democratic establishment bubble believe that Tim Kaine is a “safe” choice for Clinton. I don’t confine to that way of thinking, because I don’t live in the establishment bubble that many Clinton supporters live in, and I view this selection as detrimental to Clinton’s efforts to defeat Donald Trump in November. But before I get into that, I want to explain the way of thinking of many establishment Democrats who have supported this decision. Firstly, they think that this is a safe bet. They think that Clinton will overwhelmingly beat Trump in November, and that is why they support a candidate as mild as Kaine. The problem is that Clinton doesn’t have this election locked in. The Democratic Party is divided. On one side you have the establishment regressives. These people support Hillary Clinton. On the other side, you have the liberals and progressives who supported Bernie Sanders. Many of these people supported Sanders because they disliked Clinton and found her to be too regressive and moderate. So, she is already the moderate/regressive/conservative Democratic candidate. Why on earth would she pick a self-described conservative Democrat who is against the legalization of weed and abortion? The other way of thinking that many establishment Democrats have is that they feel Kaine will be able to attract some Republicans because he is so conservative. The problem is that the conservatives are far more untied behind Trump than the Democrats are behind Hillary.

Also, independents (who are overwhelmingly liberal and progressive in terms of their values) will not be willing to vote for a guy like this. Independents are the deciding factor in any election, and I feel that most of them will be gravitated towards Trump while the Republican base will rally behind Mike Pence. You see, Pence was a smart choice for Trump. Donnie-boy is viewed, as the anti-establishment candidate while Pence is a corporate establishment stooge. So Pence will attract the establishment while Trump will attract the independents. If Clinton were smart about her choice for VP, she would have gone with a progressive like Elizabeth Warren or the always-loveable Martin O’Malley. These progressive candidates would have the potential to unify the establishment wing of the party with the progressive wing of the party. However, the Democratic Party will more than likely stay split while the Republicans will unite behind Trump.

This pick will do nothing but anger progressives and widen the divide between wings of the party. Tim Kaine is a regressive who is pro-life, anti-marijuana, pro-fracking, pro-TPP, and he supports cutting social security. Not to mention that many of his Democratic colleges refer to him as a “Democrat in name only.” This is the point when Clinton more-or-less handed the election to Trump in November.