For these voters, Tim Walz is the dad they wish they had
www.independent.co.uk
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. Ariana Baio reports.

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.

…

“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.

  • FirstCircleEnglish
    44·
    5 months ago

    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.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      8·
      5 months ago

      “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.