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 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 ;-)
It’s also not true.
Exactly, they’re just justifying their own pulling-the-ladder-up-after-them.
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
Instead of all this garbage about ‘dad energy’ and whatever else PR nonsense is being pushed, why not focus on what he stands for or has tried to achieve in his career?
There’s no hope for politics in America when both sides engage in this petty personality cultism.
There’s a ton of policy coverage re: Tim Walz. This article isn’t about that, it’s about a really common reality young people in the US face, where they have parents who have been brainwashed by right-wing media and who can’t spend an afternoon with you without bringing up politics. I’m from a pretty conservative area and know this dynamic all too well. I think Tim Walz’s personality is to be celebrated, and I don’t see at all how this is “cultism” compared to what we see with MAGA
It mentions what he achieved. How is this cultism?
It’s called projection.
What we have here, friends, is a classic example of a thought-terminating cliché.
Thanks for this, I literally used a cliche such as the ones listed in a previous comment, though I did not realize I was using one.
I’ve learned more about Tim Walz stands for in the last couple of weeks than I ever had before that, including when he was just in the running as VP. And every time I learn something knew about what he stands for, I get more impressed.
Attachment figures that project wholesome vibes and safety and good times (silliness) are what every mammal wants unless they have somehow repressed that fundamental instinct. Maybe get in touch with your feelings and you’d understand.
Yeah but that’s how we got Trump. We shouldn’t choose leaders based on vibes.
How about you stop electing leaders based on vibes and maybe focus on what’s actually important?
Like feeding kids and stopping the rampant war on drugs that has destroyed a bunch of lives and families over a little plant called marijuana? He’s my governor and once dems secured a majority in our state they’ve been improving tons of stuff.
You first. I’d love to hear some more about Tim Walz outside of his voting record / legislation he helped pass in Minnesota.
This isn’t cultism you goofball.
It really is, American politics are all about personality and fanboying your chosen leader.
Personality and “vibe” are certainly factors, ESPECIALLY in motivating people (especially younger people) to vote. If young people actually voted, the GOP as it stands today would lose every time.
Every accusation is a confession.
Im confessing to looking at candidates stances and history over supporting them based on the energy they give off?
. . . okay, is that meant to be a negative thing?
You do understand I like this guy, right?
Because American voters are fickle, and unfortunately this is the shit people vote on. Vibes.
Luckily, his record is also great apparently.
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Goofy dad calling in the national guard on BLM protestors. Silly goose!
Who’s shocked?
Lol yeah dismiss facts because you didnt like the instance I have a second account on.
also lol keep lapping up the dem propaganda unquestioningly
Hexbear hypocrite hating on some guy who provides tampons to trans people.
If he won’t stand up against the genocide his party supports and calls the national freaking guard on BLM protestors, a move so fashist it impressed even Trump:
“I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim,” Trump continued. “You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/despite-new-criticism-trump-told-walz-2020-happy/story?id=112616502
then I don’t know how hating on him makes me a hypocrite.
LOL an opinion article from Haaretz about American politics.
And, of course, you’ll be fine denouncing that paper when it supports genocide as being completely unreliable as a source.
But when it agrees with you…
You have no idea that the context of citations matters do you?
a) it’s an opinion article, I’m not linking it because of factual reporting, which indeed the Haaretz is unreliable on.
b) the point is that the Haaretz, which is trying to whitewash the genocide, is cool with Walz.
I would also cite far-right american newspapers if I wanted to showcase how the far-right likes someone and approves of their “silence”.
Cool. Show us how the far-right in America really likes Tim Walz then (one single positive comment about an event that happened years ago is not enough to show that they like someone, sorry). Especially considering they were all pissed off Harris didn’t pick Shapiro.
I don’t like the instance you’re on because it’s full of assholes and you’re not exactly making it easy for me to change that opinion.
It doesn’t matter what justification you use to keep burying your head in the sand, you’re still blinding yourself in a desperate attempt to safeguard some hope about the upcoming election no matter how false it may be.
In the midst of your righteous anger, you might have missed the point that I wasn’t talking about Tim Walz.
No, you keep trying to deflect from his shitty record to me having a second account on hexbear. I just keep trying to have you take an actual look at the guy and not just blindly cheerlead whoever the dems put in front of you.
I am not a moderator in this community. Believe it or not, I am not able to shut you up or shut you down. You can post a response criticizing Walz in reply to every person on this thread and there would be nothing I could do about it.
Gotta love how people on Lemmy claim you’re trying to silence them.
If you’re worried about people deflecting from your claims, maybe your claims aren’t very good and you should find some claims that people can’t deflect.
I AM shocked. The cropping of this screenshot is terrible.
He waited to verify that there was a rioter and looter problem before calling them in. Explicitly so he wasn’t calling them in on mere protesters, but looters who deserve it.
Anything youre basing this on? To clarify: who deserved the terrorisation of the national guard and how did Tim Walz make sure they were targeted.
If you actually listen to his recounting of the situation… Yeah, actually. I would say that the way he handled that was absolutely the way a (good) dad would.
Including the bit afterwards where they tell you they were wrong for the initial overreaction, but they did it out of fear for your safety.
But after actually listening to why you’re mad, you talk it out and guess what? He recognizes that your anger is valid and opened a dialogue to help fix those problems.
If that’s not “great dad” energy, then I dunno what is.
But let’s not let actual facts get in the way of you pretending to be a progressive on the internet to make leftists look bad.
Got any links because the search engines are cluttered with articles fact checking trump who keeps wanting to take credit for calling in the national guard.
edit:
If you actually listen to his recounting of the situation
How can I if I only get downvoted with no replies? I’m not even arguing here just asking what it is that I haven’t seen.
Here’s a neutral account: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests_in_Minneapolis–Saint_Paul
Ok, but the poster above is saying that Walz admitted to being in the wrong and that his was an overreaction. I would like to know the context of this.
the police state violently crushing dissent is actually good when it’s done by someone who reminds me of my dad!
two comments below yours:
he made sure only those who deserved it got abducted from the streets
sometimes daddy needs to put his foot down and disappear people I guess?
you don’t understand, those people definitely deserved it. they were the bad protestors, not the good protestors. the foot-soldiers of the state only attack people who deserve it. this is basic freedomology.
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.
I don’t think there is anything wrong about coming to your own conclusions from public figures about the ways in which your personal relationships have been impacted by said public figures. Yes we don’t know these people directly but they impact and shape our lives, sometimes without us even knowing it.
Public figures aren’t actually people we can connect with, though. It’s a para-social relationship.
I think “connection” can be very subjective depending on who you’re talking to, and I think this conversation needs a lot more nuance than perhaps is being given to it. I think by not lending credence to how we form connections and bonds with these political figures through emotion, we are trying to act like that it doesn’t exist (or shouldn’t), which isn’t true. The article here seems more to be pointing out that liberal women have lost their fathers to far-right ideology, not so much that they are now attaching that lost relationship to Walz. It seems more as though Walz helped these women come to terms with this fact, or enlightened them to it.
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.
I see my father all the time but I still love what Walz is out there doing, because he’s the kind of dad that I try to be.
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
