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.
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.
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.
I think the idea many of these right wing people have about family is a very authoritarian one.
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.
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 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
Partisan fucking division? Fucking partisan division?
Christ.
Partisan division is when your dad wants to put immigrants in concentration camps and you don’t!
Does that mean we could lose T-Dubz to Fox News, too?
The Independent - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
Information for The Independent:
MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: Medium - Factual Reporting: Mixed - United Kingdom
Wikipedia about this sourceSearch topics on Ground.News
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/tim-walz-big-dad-energy-kamala-harris-b2592570.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kamala-harris-campaign-schedule-b2592698.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tim-walz-midwestern-dad-republicans-b2593940.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tim-walz-harris-running-mate-family-life-minnesota-b2592266.htmlYeah I heard the same thing on Internet Today.
The deep longing so many people have for their lost fathers is really heart breaking.
Like, fuck. He’s not your dad! Please stop trying to fill the hole in your heart with politicians and celebrities. Please go talk to a therapist about how your father abandoned you, or you lost him to right wing conspiracies, or how you miss him now that he’s dead. Don’t replace him with a guy you saw on TV! This isn’t good for you and you’re just going to get hurt.
I mean, saying someone feels like the dad you could’ve had doesn’t mean there’s anything pathologic going on. They’re just being wistful and pointing out that Walz is giving cool dad vibes.
I think you’re being a bit hyperbolic by suggesting these women have literally formed a parasocial father-daughter relationship with him in 3 weeks.
Calling it pathological might be going too far, but it’s heart breaking when someone talks at length about losing their father in the context of saying Walz reminds them of their dad. Whenever people elaborate it becomes clear there’s something wrong.
There’s a broken and sick society that’s producing all these people who are longing for their lost fathers and it’s just. Heartbreaking.
It is grief. Perfectly natural in those circumstances. Very similar to people loosing their parents to dementia or ALS.
What’s unnatural is connecting their grieving process to a guy they see on TV and then wrapping this into their political choices.
You’ll notice this isn’t only happening among people voting for Harris. Among Trump voters, you know what they do? They slot Trump into that father figure role! People shouldn’t be making politicians into parental figures. Something is wrong.
I mean, can you really call it unnatural overall if people have a desire to connect to and with others - even if it’s not fully logical. Emotions can be far from logical.
In a natural process, someone might connect with an older man in the community as a father figure in their own life. A mentor or a local leader, perhaps.
Emotionally connecting to the TV is disrupting a natural and healthy process by inserting a father figure that they can never really connect with.
Again you’re putting logic in an equation where it may not exist. I’m also not disagreeing with you, but people tend to make connections where they don’t/shouldn’t exist.
They aren’t trying to fill the hole with someone else, they are just saying one person reminds them of how someone else used to be. They see how this one famous person acts and remember when their dad used to act that way. They aren’t turning the famous guy into a father figure, but they are mourning the loss of their actual father figure. You are way over-analyzing what is being said here.
And then they’re choosing to materially support their new father figure, because he reminds them of their lost father.
I’ve said it elsewhere, but at least they aren’t giving him money.
Wait, so you think it is bad to see someone who acts like their ideal person and then choose to vote for them?
I think it’s bad to see someone who you have never and will never meet as a father figure, and then to materially support them out of a misplaced para-social relationship.
You are either a troll or have serious reading comprehension issues. At no point did anyone, either us posters here or the woman in the story, say she saw him as a father figure. You are literally the only person saying father figure here. There’s a guy in my neighborhood who reminds me of my dad. I don’t see him as a father figure.
I have to conclude you are posting with an agenda and are trying to shift the focus away from a positive story. There’s no way you can be as stupid as you sound. I’ll be blocking you for clearly not trying to have an honest conversation.
Reminds me of my dad in the sense that i get a bad vibe and i dont trust him to not beat me the second i raise a concern lol
This supports my theory that left wingers are often born out of households with weak or absent fathers
So you’re saying most father’s that turned into MAGA fanatics were weak or absent when their children were young? I don’t know how to interpret it otherwise.
Lol alright Mr Freud, and right wingers are born out of a lack of unconditional motherly love, or what?
Change it out for a lack of positive perspective for the future and you might even be right.
Thats maybe why the empty promises work to begin with.
