The opinion of the person is that he knows rural America

Why is the government in ours? A tale that reminds us that the United States is a country that cares about what we do and what we don’t

For a generation or more, most of the politicians who visited towns like La Vista were Republicans who told their audiences a familiar story: that the government was in their way, that the welfare state was leeching their sweat and tears to service the lazy poor, that rugged individualism still reigned supreme. It’s the same story that Mr. Vance and his fellow Republicans are telling today. Mr. Walz is making a bold play to claw back the narrative by telling a different story — one that harks back to the prairie populists of the 20th century.

In one of several lines that drew effusive applause, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee said, “while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banning hunger in ours.”

He invoked his support for abortion rights while also acknowledging his respect for those who disagree with him. If we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we have a golden rule. Mind your own damn business.”

But the man has a way with a speech. When they build the country, they will make workers first, health care and housing human Rights, and the government stays the hell out of your bedroom.

A vision of a party and country that take pride in the military uniform, that show awareness for vulnerable families struggling with illness, poverty and debt, that prize the most essential workers, was what the speech was really about.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all sugar and honey — he knocked Trump plenty, like saying “some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor.” When someone takes the time to draw up a playbook, they are going to use it, that’s what Walz said when he drew on his football coaching days.

What Will a Vice-President’s Choice Tell About Nebraska if Mr. Trump Worked on the McFlurry Machine?

It was a peroration that would make any progressive proud, but it also felt grounded in core values — dignity, humanity, privacy — that a great many Americans of all parties care about.

Ms. Harris, Mr. Walz reminded the audience, worked at McDonald’s in high school. Can you see Donald Trump working on the McFlurry machine? he asked. He went after the running mate of Mr. Trump. He asked if he knew one particular thing about Nebraska. You think he’s ever had a Runza? (A Runza is a German-style meat and cabbage roll that, improbably, can be purchased as fast food in Nebraska.) “That guy would call it a Hot Pocket,” he said. “You know it.”

There aren’t much limits on how much a candidate like Mr. Walz can achieve. Some parts of the country may be lost to Democrats for the foreseeable future, no matter how compelling a story the vice-presidential candidate has to tell. In the last two elections, Mr. Trump got 90 to 80% of the vote in the rural Nebraska counties where he grew up. Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson were the two Democrats who the state voted for for president in the last century. Still, Democrats have an opportunity to win back at least some of these voters — but only if they talk about what Republican policies have done to rural people, many of whom have been forced to leave their rural hometowns to find education and work in urban centers like Omaha.