Clinton pick gives Trump an opening

Two crucial priorities for the upcoming fall election campaign — defeating Donald Trump and advancing a progressive agenda for the U. S. — have been harmed by Hillary Clinton’s selection of Tim Kaine as her running mate.

Sen. Kaine has some admirable qualities. But Clinton’s choice for VP has given Trump yet another opening for his demagogic efforts to pose as some kind of populist against powerful elites.

As Virginia’s governor, Kaine declared that “I strongly support” the state’s anti- union and misnamed “right to work” law. Last year, he was one of only a dozen Democratic senators to vote for fast- tracking an ominous trade pact, the corporate Trans- Pacific Partnership. Just days ago, Kaine went out of his way to voice enthusiasm for a dangerous proposal to deregulate some banks, including sizable ones. That type of friendly stance toward moneyed elites is hardly an anomaly for Kaine, who criticized fellow Democrats in 2011 for seeking a higher tax rate on millionaires.

All this and more in Kaine’s extensive record of serving the undemocratic power of wealth indicate that if Hillary Clinton is reaching out to Bernie Sanders’ 13 million voters, she is doing so while sticking her political thumbs in their eyes. After all, Bernie’s campaign was a sustained clarion call for grassroots democracy instead of gilded- age oligarchy.

Now, both Democrats on the ticket will be targets for Trump’s false claims that he’s an advocate for working people against corporate forces.

Does this mean that Sanders supporters should consider voting for Trump or sitting out the election? Absolutely not.

Trump is a clear and present danger to our cherished democratic institutions and fundamental rights. In swing states, voting for the Clinton- Kaine ticket will be the only way to prevent the calamity of a Trump presidency.

But no amount of media hype or Democratic establishment spin should distract us from understanding that the Clinton- Kaine ticket lacks the principled progressive commitment that America needs.

Norman Solomon, a Bernie Sanders delegate from California, is coordinator of the Bernie Delegates Network and co- founder of the online activist group RootsAction.org.