Beware Tim Walz: The Silly Midwestern Grandpa Who’s Actually a Flaming Lib

If this week has made one thing clear, it’s that Democrats understand something about elections that Republicans don’t. When you’re trying to win an election, vibe is king. This is why they scoured the country until they found a photogenic...

The post Beware Tim Walz: The Silly Midwestern Grandpa Who’s Actually a Flaming Lib appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

If this week has made one thing clear, it’s that Democrats understand something about elections that Republicans don’t. When you’re trying to win an election, vibe is king.

This is why they scoured the country until they found a photogenic happy black woman and a smiling Midwestern grandpa who could masquerade as (in the words of CNN) “happy warriors,” while secretly being flaming libs. Like it or not, it’s a strategy that has a decent shot at working.

Let me explain.

You, my dear readers, tend to be up-to-date on politics, to put it lightly. You read, digest, and then debate ideas in the comments. Some of you may have even made it all the way through Scott McKay’s piece on nationalism and conservatism earlier this week. Kudos to you. You are not the average American.

The average American reads headlines. They hear the news while sitting at bars on a Thursday night or while standing in the break room at work. That’s fine. If the entire world cared as much as we do about the news, the world would be a horrible place. Granted, this isn’t exactly what the Founding Fathers dreamed of when they proposed an educated society making educated decisions in a republic. But we don’t live in the country they dreamed up anyway, so I’ll forgive the average citizen for his lukewarm approach to politics. There are better things in life.

Unfortunately, the Founding Fathers were right about one thing: When you have an uneducated and lukewarm society, you get voting by vibe.

Walz’s Vibe Is Kinda Cute and Incredibly Dangerous

If you ask the media (and most Americans do), the Trump–Vance ticket has an angry “machoman” vibe. That’s not to say that Trump hasn’t given it his all to shift that perception. (This week hundreds of thousands of Americans tuned in to watch an hours-long “interview” between internet personality Alvin Ross and Donald Trump — it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I’m sure somebody out there enjoyed it.) Unfortunately, given the massive left-wing media beast, there’s little Trump can do to change his optics.

In just a couple of weeks, Trump’s running mate has been attacked as “weird” and a misogynist for his “childless cat ladies” comment. Trump himself is labeled as a “felon” and a bad loser who tried to incite an insurrection. It doesn’t matter how right JD Vance is about the women trying to run our country, or how many times we rehash Jan. 6, Democrats are good at this game and they control the media.

Tim Walz and Kamala Harris have a very different vibe. Despite the fact that Walz enabled and Harris funded the BLM riots that turned Minneapolis into a warzone in 2020, they’ve been labeled “happy warriors.” And CNN isn’t the only one. Walz has been described on television as “cuddly,” “happy,” and “authentic.” He has a decent smile and, allegedly, a down-to-earth, personable attitude. All of this is very cute and incredibly dangerous.

In less than 48 hours, you and I were digging through Walz’s record and plastering all over X. He’s the kind of radical who puts tampons in boys restrooms in public schools, legalizes abortion up to birth, signs bills permitting babies to be murdered after a botched abortion, and lets American cities burn to the ground. But most Americans weren’t paying attention. They were watching Brooke Raboutou scale rocks at the Olympics (please tell me I wasn’t the only one) or taking the kids to the pool.

The way Trump wins this thing is by somehow framing Harris and Walz in a vibe that stinks of burning cities and chaos. That vibe has to be so pungent that even the average voter feels it without reading conservative news outlets. Until the Trump campaign can figure that out, this election is going to be a little too close for comfort.

The post Beware Tim Walz: The Silly Midwestern Grandpa Who’s Actually a Flaming Lib appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.