When Harris had to pick a VP, all media kinda agreed it should be a white male, to balance the fact that she is black and a woman. So Walz is the DEI hire.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.”
You could also argue that he was hired for representation. The goal is not to get as many black women into power as possible, but to keep the congress diverse. So ideally, there would be half men, half women, some significant fraction black, and so on.
She could have picked another woman as a VP, and it would not have been too bad. But from a diversity perspective, it is better to represent more parts of the population in these positions.
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.
Vance is also a DEI hire. They didn't want two geriatrics on the ticket so they chose someone young. Diversity in age. DEI can be spun many ways. It's not a bad thing.
Hmmm how should I pick out who would be a good vice president.... I'll disregard professional perspective and voting history for no reason. Let's instead analyze the implied genitalia and melanin production in the dermis!
He was clearly chosen for the votes he's likely to bring in. That's smart strategy on Harris' part.
As near as I can tell "the media" spent a few days wildly guessing about who her VP pick would be and many of them where white males. There are many articles that predicted that she would pick a white male but I couldn't find any that argued that it should be a consideration.
it's a catch 22 situation where you can't have two minority picks because ostensibly, that would be DEI, but specifically picking a white guy for DEI is ostensibly not DEI because you're picking the best candidate for the role.
i don't really think it's any deeper than the fact that tim walz was literally the perfect pick, he just happens to be white. I'm not sure you would be able to find an equally beloved and respected pick other than him.
like, just so we're on the same page here, it's not a bad thing that she picked a white guy, it quite literally broadens and diversifies her running, i believe she also wants to appoint more diverse office candidates as well, so we'll probably see less white people there inevitably.
at the end of the day, it is what it is. You push for diversity in picking someone like Kamala, you also have to do the same thing for white people as well. It's all strategic at the end of the day, they wouldn't have done it if it didn't make any sense.
Every democratic ticket that's won the presidency this century has been a mixed race ticket. If I had to guess, this election is gonna be a big win for democrats, and if they have any intelligence whatsoever, they'll keep their presidential tickets mixed race for a while in the future. Some people will just always prefer to vote for their own race.