Harris choosing Walz for VP made one thing clear: Neither she nor Trump wants unity

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential nominee, adding the last piece to this year's election puzzle.

Walz is a progressive governor from a solidly blue state. He is radically pro-abortion access, has called for an assault weapons ban and is weak on illegal immigration. He is a perfect candidate for Harris to appeal to her progressive base and for Republicans to go after.

However, the choice reveals one thing about this election: Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have little interest in expanding their appeal to voters put off by their candidacy.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have chosen partisanship

Walz's appeal is broadly the same as Harris' as he shares the same progressive ideology. Whatever people think of Harris politically is how they will view Walz, offering little room for this ticket to grow past its base.

Funny enough, I had a similar opinion about Sen. JD Vance of Ohio when Trump chose him as his successor. In the face of principled GOP objections to Trump, MAGA decided to stick to what it knows and ignore the rest of us.

As much as the parties want to point out they are different from each other, they certainly are the same when it comes to how they view this election: It's divisive.

With Walz as VP pick, Harris doubles down on her far-left plans. Republicans must use this.

It seems that both Trump and Harris view this election as one that will be determined by how much of their own party base they can rally to get out and vote, not by how broad an appeal they can generate.

While the Trump campaign has softened stances on some policy issues, most notably abortion, to expand the party base, his choice of Vance revealed that he had no interest in drawing votes from the anti-Trump wing of the Republican Party.

The same goes for Harris in her choice of Walz. While Harris had ample opportunity to choose a vice presidential candidate who could bridge her appeal to moderates who are not fans of her or Trump, she instead chose a progressive extremist closely aligned with her politically.

Both parties are bound to see vicious attack ads on their choice for running mate from their rivals, but the choices themselves have already made these a nonfactor. The only people who are truly going to be swayed on such avenues of attack are those who are undecided, a small population that both parties have made clear they have no interest in swaying.

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Choosing Walz, Vance makes voting harder for moderates

For me, a conservative who is not voting for Trump, there isn’t a VP choice out there that could compel me to vote for Harris. However, moderates would have been attracted to somebody like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who enjoys high approval ratings even in that hotly contested state.

Both sides are simply continuing the trend of increasingly polarized presidential elections.

Where do Gen Z conservatives go? Young Republicans against Trump are left without a political home. MAGA can't be it.

The extreme differences between the two offer little ground for agreement between supporters of both sides. In a time of escalating political violence, fueling the fires of polarization does little to assure Americans that their leaders have any interest in cooling tensions. Neither party is interested in unifying the country, and the VP race is the perfect example of that apathy toward the most important task at hand.

Voters have little choice but to abstain from voting if they are dissatisfied with the choices presented. The "lesser of two evils" choices will only continue if people continue to allow them.

American politics are extremely polarized, which is impacting how we interact with each other. Neither Democrats nor Republicans seem all that concerned about bridging such divides, however. Now, voters have to decide.

Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tim Walz pick shows Harris, Trump aren't so different after all