Nolan Finley: America needs better than 'just an average guy'

Nolan Finley, The Detroit News on Oct 10, 2024

Published in Op Eds

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

"I grew up middle class" is not the answer to any question other than, perhaps, "How did you grow up?"

Yet that's the response incessantly offered by Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, when pressed on almost any issue.

This middle class virtue signaling is aimed at assuring voters the Democratic ticket of Harris and Walz is better connected to the struggles and aspirations of the majority of Americans, and to contrast themselves with the billionaire/millionaire Republican ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance.

Walz, who hails from a small Nebraska farming community, has legitimate middle class credentials. He was born into the middle class and has stayed there all of his life. Harris' status is a bit sketchier. Her parents both held Ph.D.s and were university professors and researchers. Even though they separated, their children were raised in relative comfort in elite college communities in California, Illinois and Montreal.

That's not the same same middle class experience as someone who grew up as kids of autoworkers in Warren or Westland.

Harris, who's been a millionaire much of her adult life, is harder to plug into the middle class. But Democrats celebrate Walz as just an average dad who changes his own oil, teaches school and helps coach the local football team. An ordinary guy from the neighborhood.

But is ordinary what we really want in our leaders? When it comes to presidents and vice presidents, I'm looking for extraordinary. I want someone who has demonstrated a knack for success in a field other than politics.

Walz wants us to trust him because, at age 60, he has no investments, doesn't own a home and lives entirely off his governor's salary. (By contrast, his GOP opponent, JD Vance, is worth $5 million, Harris is worth $11 million and Donald Trump, well who really knows?)

Walz's relatively modest financial status is nothing to be embarrassed about. Lots of folks are in the same place. It's nothing to brag about, either. And it doesn't uniquely qualify him for the second highest position in the nation.

I'm more inspired by Vance's story. Born into poverty and a dysfunctional family, he managed to work his way through college and into Yale law school. From there he went into the world of finance and ultimately into the Senate. Not bad work for a 39-year-old who didn't have the advantage of starting from the middle class.

It makes me think there's something exceptionable about the guy. And exceptional is what has been noticeably missing in our leadership class.

At the Democratic convention, Walz bragged that of the 24 kids in his graduating class, not one went to Yale. Apparently, drive and excellence aren't qualities he admires.

Most people born since the end of World War II started life in the middle class, including a few who ended up in the White House. Some have excelled; some failed. There's no indication a leader chosen from the middle class is better equipped to meet the needs of middle income Americans.

"Middle Class Joe" Biden and middle class pretender Kamala Harris proved that in forming an administration that rained misery on middle class families.

_____