Walz is a tough swallow for me because of school reform. But SO WHAT?

It's not like we have a choice.

Had to have one of those stern bathroom mirror chats with myself this morning when I found out Harris’s vp pick was going to be Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. I really hate it when I find myself telling myself to shut up.

Walz has what I consider to be a terrible record on the one public policy issue that’s most important to me – school reform. He has been lockstep with the teachers’ unions in Minnesota, helping them shoot down every meaningful measure to achieve racial and social equity in Minnesota public schools. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro would have been so much better.

But then I say to the guy in the mirror, “And? And? So what?”

Right. So what? That’s where we are. That’s exactly what Trump has done to us. We’re the so-what nation.

So what do I think happens to schools if Trump gets elected? So what do I think happens to anything? To everything? We don’t have the luxury. The oxygen is gone, used up. This is do or die. I hate that. But so what?

One of the most interesting Trump conversations I have had recently with people I know personally was with a very smart young guy (young to me being under 60) who makes his living in a very arcane (to me) area of immigration law and private capital. Let’s not go into the weeds.

The interesting part of that chat was this: his entire industry is on pins and needles, terribly anxious about a Trump victory. I asked him if it’s because Trump is opposed to his industry on specific policy issues. He said no.

“That’s not it. It’s that Trump is crazy. That’s what we worry about.”

My friend’s business involves putting big chunks of money into long-range investments that already involve plenty of risk. The added risk of wild wombats in the White House with regulatory power over their deal is way too much.

He said nobody in his business is still saying what everybody in his industry said before the first go-round with Trump – that Trump himself may be a wild wombat, but those trusty white-shoe Republicans with all the money in the world will make sure he is kept in his cage.

Now they know better. All the money in the world can’t keep the president of the United States in a cage, and this time around Trump will see them coming. His top advisors, his gate-keepers and oval office couch buddies will be people like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. JD Vance is already trying to out-craze them so he can win his own place on the couch (ouch).

And hey. Where’s Rudy?

These are truly dark times. We can’t mess around. Maybe when its all over, somebody can make a movie about it with Javier Bardem called, “No Country for Dilettantes.”

So, yes, I am telling the guy in the mirror to shut the hell up. I am telling him he doesn’t get to pick a perfect ticket. He had better hope to hell the Harris-Walz ticket wins this election, because otherwise, as Trump himself is saying, there may not be any more elections.

I do think that this election is not going to be much fun. But as I say. So what?