VICTOR JOECKS: The hate it isn’t safe for Democrats to hate

If he weren’t Jewish, Vice President Kamala Harris probably would have selected Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate.

On Tuesday, Harris announced that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will join her on the Democrat presidential ticket. Ironically, the pick thrilled Republicans. Walz is both radical and unknown, which means the Trump campaign can use him to highlight Harris’ extremism. For instance, he was governor while Minneapolis burned in 2020 during the George Floyd riots and delayed bringing in the National Guard. He required Minnesota public schools to put tampons in boys’ bathrooms. His first executive order as governor created a DEI council.

Even his military service includes a major scandal. Despite being the top-ranked enlisted soldier in his battalion, he quit when his unit was ordered to mobilize to Iraq. He lost rank over it. On top of that, Minnesota is a solid blue state.

On Monday, Reuters reported that the final two candidates were Walz and Shapiro. On paper, Shapiro would have been a stronger pick. He’s cultivated a more moderate reputation, although he’s plenty radical too. Pennsylvania is a must-win state, and Shapiro enjoys strong approval ratings.

Last week, it looked as if Shapiro was the favorite. But then the Hamas wing of the Democrat Party made it clear they opposed picking an observant Jew.

Leftists launched a “No genocide Josh” campaign. “Anti-Israel activists don’t want him on the Democratic ticket,” The Atlantic reported last week. “He’s Jewish,” CNN’s John King noted last month, “There could be some risk in putting him on the ticket.”

CNN commentator Van Jones, a liberal who once worked in the Obama White House, laid out the reasons Harris didn’t pick Shapiro. One was the “antisemitism that’s gotten marbled into this party,” he said.

But aside from Jones, few Democrats are willing to call out the antisemites in their party. Worse, Democrats’ electoral hopes hinge on turning out Hamas supporters in Michigan. Tragically, supporting Israel and opposing antisemitism is fast becoming a partisan issue.

What happened in Virginia City over the weekend makes this contrast even starker. A viral video appeared to show a white man making racist comments to an African American man. Assuming the video is accurate, the white guy said vile things, including a comment about a hanging tree. He was widely and rightly condemned, by Republicans and Democrats.

While he doesn’t have time to ensure his office responds to records requests, Democrat Attorney General Ford spends quite a bit of time on X. He wrote, “We can have no tolerance for this type of racist behavior in Nevada. Or anywhere.”

If only. At UNLV, openly screaming for the murder of Jews gets you a meeting with President Keith Whitfield. Disrupting an Israeli physics professor leads to UNLV police escorting the professor off campus. Ford and other Democrats were much less interested in condemning those incidents, even though they happened on public property and involved many more people.

And the country just saw the left smear Harris’ potential VP pick because he was Jewish.

Democrats love to babble on about diversity and inclusion. But the disparity in reaction here shows there’s a form of hate most Democrats are afraid to hate.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.