Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz embodies everything liberal women see in their own fathers – except for their political views. For some, it makes them hopeful but also very sad.
He’s got jokes, enthusiasm and a smiley face that’s not even remotely trying to hide how he’s feeling. He’s Tim Walz- and he’s bringing major Midwestern dad energy to the Democratic ticket.
At least that’s how many white women feel when they see Walz in videos, riding the Slingshot at the state fair with his daughter, signing legislation to give kids in Minnesota free lunches or tweeting about his pet cat.
It’s in stark contrast to what some see in their own fathers - who often have more conservative political views.
“He is silly. My dad used to be very, very silly and goofy,” Pamela Wurst Vetrini, a woman who recently compared Walz to her father, said in a viral TikTok video.
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“A lot of us had moderate to conservative, educated, sensible fathers that we lost to Rush Limbaugh. That we lost to Fox News. That we lost to Donald Trump. And the cult of conservatism that has grown and grown and grown has driven a wedge between millennial woman and her father,” she said.
I think Tim Walz is very important, because he shows that “regular,” working class, middle aged men don’t HAVE to be conservative. We don’t have to believe in baseless conspiracy theories, we don’t have to reject scientific evidence, we don’t have to divorce ourselves from reality. We don’t have to believe that vaccines are evil, that climate change is a hoax, or that the 2020 election was stolen. Maybe we don’t agree with everything the liberals say and do, but that doesn’t mean we have to go full ding dong and start listening to Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro. There are other options and Tim Walz is representative of at least one of those alternatives.
Not to mention that he shows that you can be both masculine AND change your mind about things. Even letting your children change your mind. Shocking!
And being masculine while openly giving support to the less fortunate. Contrasting with the might-makes-right view that these alt-right “masculine” types subscribe to.
That’s a really important point. For some reason, many men think it’s somehow a sign of weakness to be wrong about something, or to admit that someone knows more about something than you do. I think you look weak if you refuse to admit when you’re wrong and double down on some ignorant position out of stubbornness.
The fact that so many blue collar people are conservative when they could just as easily be liberals amazes me. Democrats are the ones who want unions, better environment, better labor rights, better working conditions, but somehow the conservatives are really good at lying and making propaganda.
“Some reason”
It’s called a lack of scruples, and no conscience.
One party is actually somewhat beholden to the values it espouses, so they can’t do the kind of shit the right does without losing support.
A large part of the issue is that the Democratic Party (and Labour in the UK, and the Liberals in Canada) really drank the third-way neoliberal koolaid in the 1990s and have done a poor job of speaking to the anxieties and concerns of the poor.
The political right has talked to those anxieties, albeit in a dishonest, manipulative and disingenuous way, but they do talk to it and–not only do they talk to it, they deliver results. Again, dishonest, manipulative and self-serving results, but if you don’t look to closely it looks like they’re taking action.
I’m hoping Harris and Walz mark a new era, but after witnessing Trudeau in Canada and Starmer in the UK continuing to make the mistakes of the 1990s, I’m not holding my breath.
I have such high hope for Walz. He’s so tight with the labor party. If harris and walz wins this election I’ll be so happy.
Had a good friend of 30 years, tell me over the phone that my kids and I should be shot because I didn’t immediately feel sorry for Trump being shot at.
I told him, “This is a direct result of pushing division, guns being able to be bought with amazing ease, and it will probably happen again.”
He said, “I wish the same thing that happened to Trump to happen to you and your kids.” and hung up.
Friendship over. I’m not being friends with anyone who wishes my kids to be killed.
Yikes. The parasocial relationship people have with Trump is psychotic - this guy clearly felt like an attempt on Trump’s life by a random nutjob was equivalent to an attempt on his own life by whoever is arguing with him.
Even if it’s hyperbole, it’s still a shitty thing to say.
When someone is telling you who they are, listen.
THE FIRST TIME!
That sucks. I hope that cloud has a silver lining for you, somehow.
I lost a few people to Fox News. Neighbors, in-laws.
Maybe lost isn’t the right word. Those who tried to rebuild the relationship often start with accusations like “When will you wake up that the libs & immigrants are going to cause Armageddon?” Or some racist bullshit.
i heard immigrant friends say that, they keep sending me links to x.com 🤦, far right media is a hardcore drug
Send them links to xvideos.com
I’ve seen that too. An immigrant saying the problem with U.S. are immigrants. I’m like “so when are you moving back?”
It is loss. Grief is appropriate.
Nothing is safe from Loss.
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Is this loss?
I thought that was Michael Bay and Bruce Willis.
Walz is what I imagine my parents would be like if my parents had actually believed the moral lessons they taught me as a kid
The probably did at the time. There must be something in the water, or after effects of leaded gasoline, or something.
I am from norway so I only see this slow train wreck from the sidelines, but how the heck else can that wierd clown DT have a cult of personality. It boggles the mind.Usually the refrain is “you’ll get more conservative as you get older”.
What they means is “… as you get more wealthy*”.
* i.e. as in own their home, retire, etc.
It’s also not true.
Exactly, they’re just justifying their own pulling-the-ladder-up-after-them.
It doesn’t help that since the 1970’s, we’ve made it nearly impossible for boomers to retire without exploiting the labor of others.
It doesn’t help that since the 1970’s,
we’veboomers made it nearly impossible for boomers to retire without exploiting the labor of others.FTFY ;-)
Propaganda is a hell of a drug.
Add in a dose of fear, and baby you got a stew goin’
Turns out 9/11 REALLY broke a lot of people’s brains. Bin Laden would be loving this shit, because it was probably the most effective attack on a nation-state ever.
Yeah, 9/11 was such a sea change in how people reacted to the world. It didn’t help that it coincided with the extraordinarily fast explosion of the internet. I knew people who went from just normal people to wishing to turn the Middle East into a glass parking lot. 9/11 was like a light switch that turned people into hate machines, and it happened in 2001 when normal people were going from dial-up to always-on DSL and cable internet so the amplification power of the internet and forwarded emails just turned that hate to 11.
This kind of right wing populism has sadly arrived here in Europe as well. Here in Germany we have the AFD which basically does the same thing.
My mother, her boyfriend and my brother have sadly also fallen into the right wing disinformation trap, it really sucks, its like a thought virus.
At least I still have my other half of the family whith which I can still have some political discussions where everyone enjoys doing it and its more about smaller details and how to turn the theory into practice.
This is the thing that gets me the most… I’m like this because of you. Thanks, I guess?
Maybe they should have been sitting right next to me and paying attention to every episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and Sesame Street like I did. Seems like they could have learned a lot.
Or I dunno, maybe I got lucky by not having a rapey children’s (and later, youth) pastor who actually taught valuable lessons while the adults were being radicalized in the main sanctuary (ew, as someone who hasn’t stepped into a church for anything besides weddings and funerals for 20 years or so, just typing that word feels gross).
My dad died to cancer four years ago. He was my hero. UNTIL he became a red hat wearing piece of shit. I was sad obviously, but it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as it would have if he was still my dad. I lost all the respect I ever had for him.
Yeah. The person I grew up with spent lots of effort telling me not to be lot the person he became overnight in 2015.
Sucks to say, but the world will be a better place without him.
Yes!!! I’ve already had it out with my dad who tried to diss Walz on his service record.
I haven’t spoken to my dad since the pandemic when he rode the anti vaxxer bandwagon. He was also deeply into Trump, Putin and all that 5G spreading COVID conspiracy shit. At the time my spouse worked in hospitality and we were on the edge of our seats every day wondering if some douchebag customer would give us COVID. Eventually that’s exactly what happened but of course that didn’t matter to dad. I’m so tired of this extremist right wing ideology being normalised as a type of conservative - doesn’t seem very family oriented to me when you beat your wife and alienate your traumatised adult kids.
so tired of this extremist right wing ideology being normalised as a type of conservative
The real truth that people don’t like to admit is that this isn’t a “type” of conservative. This is what conservatism is at its core.
It literally exists to prevent progress, it’s right in the goddamn name. They sure as shit ain’t conserving the environment.
It may express itself in different ways, but it’s purely reactionary, and thrives on this kind of generational strife.
My dad did this stuff too. My mom was going through chemo and he refused to take the smallest precautions like just wearing a mask. I don’t think I’d ever been angrier in my life. I’m appalled by this kind of behavior, but maybe try to talk to him. You or your siblings (if you have any) are probably the only people who can talk him down. Also, life is short and anything can happen. Losing your father on your current terms would suck.
Tried talking to my family. Only got more trauma. Am very happy when they die and I feel safe. Maybe some sort of compromise works for you but not everyone works the same.
Shit, I’m sorry about that. I understand that not everyone’s situation is the same. Sorry if my comment came off as offensive - I really wasn’t trying to be.
Thanks for that. Genuinely. I see sentiments like yours so often and I’m very happy for every person for whom this works but it’s so dangerous to tell it to randos on the internet with so much certainty when we don’t know their story and circumstances. I’m glad people slowly wake up to different people having different familys. Cheers
I think the idea many of these right wing people have about family is a very authoritarian one.
It’s difficult for Vetrini to see the rhetoric espoused by right-wing media and not feel hurt. Since going viral, Vetrini has been subject to vulgar and offensive comments from people who disagree with her perspective.
“Those comments are really hard to deal with, mentally. The hardest part is my dad feels the same way as these vitriolic commenters,” she said.
But she still recognizes the qualities in her father that remind her of Walz. Those are what keep her maintaining a “complicated” relationship with him.
After her TikTok went viral, Vetrini called her dad to tell him about it – hoping to hear it from her first rather than a news show.
“He responded exactly the way I would predict he would respond. Which was to remind me that socialism will ruin America,” she said.
“He responded exactly the way I would predict he would respond. Which was to remind me that socialism will ruin America,” she said.
Fucking Christ.
It’s amazing to see how Walz is outshining Harris as far as the media attention goes. He’s so good at making the case for his positions and striking back at the right in a way that anyone can understand and embrace. Hope the campaign takes a note from Walz’ policy accomplishments, because that’s honestly the only thing lacking still. If they just copy paste from Walz’ Minnesota populist accomplishments, you’ll see them winning in a landslide.
Walz is what gives me hope.
Harris taking up the candidacy was great. It felt good to be listened to but the hype wore off quickly as you realized that the party itself had not changed, only the face. She’s also been quietly changing her stances on some issues, shifting around center right. The Biden-Harris administration does have its own achievements but it tends to feel like the rest of the Democrat party where you’re voting more so for ideals which may or may not be implemented. Walz is more than talk though and it’s not like he hasn’t faced some of the same hurdles that other Democrats have either.
Walz is entirely what keeps me from feeling like I’m just voting to keep Trump out right now.
I like the guy and everything, but can we cool it with the dad stuff? It’s kind of weird. He’s a politician.
He’s also a father and a guy that gives off sitcom- dad energy.
As opposed to Vance, who gives off HBO drama-distant father energy.
I think he gives off Netflix True Crime creepy uncle energy
I could see him featured in a show that involves the FBI, a bag of money and a roadside penis.
How about: Can we cool it and just have a little fun? The dude is a dorky elder to most of us, and it’s kinda cute.
Nah. A key difference between left and right is that the left doesn’t worship their political candidates like the right does. That shit is weird.
It would be weird if that was what’s happening, but it’s not. Look, I get where you’re coming from and I agree with you for the most part. But people are excited right now, even I am. I think Walz is a down to earth dude, probably the closest person to me in ‘status’ that might ever see the White House (I’m poor). I think even you would admit that’s pretty cool.
At the end of the day, it’s just people memeing and shit. I say “fuck it, let them ball”, but you do you.
Most of us don’t worship our dads.
We have some good memories and some bad ones. I know I do. Walz reminds me, and I think a lot of other people, of the good memories of my dad. My dad is a flawed human being that struggled to do the right thing sometimes but he did struggle, and I love him for the things he taught me and the good memories he left me.
That’s warm fuzzies, not worship
He seems like a nice dude, I’ve met him at my uni once and he seemed cool for a politician, like genuine and not fake.
he’s going to run for president in 8 years and we’re going to have the old people problem again
TIL 60+8=78
Does that mean we could lose T-Dubz to Fox News, too?
Partisan fucking division? Fucking partisan division?
Christ.
Partisan division is when your dad wants to put immigrants in concentration camps and you don’t!
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Hmmm Daddy Tim.
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Oh spank me harder Timmy
Timmy me timbers
Oh shit Daddy Timmy is so much better!
