For these voters, Tim Walz is a reminder of their dad - before they were lost to partisan division

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Goofy dad calling in the national guard on BLM protestors. Silly goose!

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

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.

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Partisan fucking division? Fucking partisan division?

Christ.

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

Does that mean we could lose T-Dubz to Fox News, too?

This supports my theory that left wingers are often born out of households with weak or absent fathers