Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’s Democratic running mate in the 2024 race for the White House, is scaring “MAGA men” by subverting the traditional patriarchy and “offering living proof their tormented masculinity is yesterday’s news” according to an essay in Salon magazine.
The commentary, contributed by Christopher Cotton, is a long piece that sets out the argument a revolution is reshaping how men view themselves in society and it is being led from the front by Walz and his “dad” vibes despite this being the man critics point out signed laws that install tampon-dispensing machines in K-12 schools to broadcast the state’s claim that teenage girls can choose their legal sex.
The sheer fact Walz is running second on the ticket behind to a woman is somehow proof, according to the opinion piece, he is defeating the accepted wisdom of American masculinity and challenging the beliefs held by “MAGA men.”
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It focuses specifically on the MAGA movement as somehow emblematic of yesterday’s forces in society that now need reshaping, arguing, “The MAGA movement is a kind of latter-day Ghost Dance: a desperate attempt to recover the supposed lost birthright of men and restore a perceived rightful power.”
The essay cites events outside the Capitol on January 6, 201 as an example of dwindling MAGA influence and the alleged weakness of its followers, stating:
After Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, his inability to concede might be explained by his psychic wounds and subconscious terrors. That’s his problem. But when millions of Americans latch onto his obvious lie, we have to look for deeper causes. His own pathology rings true to them because they feel deeper anxieties with which Trump connects. They cannot bear to admit defeat.
Cotton argues a world of post-patriarchy awaits and MAGA men have much to fear, with Walz an exemplar of the new man of tomorrow, a “joyful warrior” willing to support Kamala Harris in her quest for high office while refusing to “fight the gender war.”
Much has been made lately about “joyful warrior” Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota and the Democratic vice-presidential nominee. While Walz is indeed skillful and cheerful in attack, there’s one battle he’s not fighting, and it drives MAGA men nuts: he doesn’t fight the gender war, yet he does not appear the least bit defeated. His presence suggests that the battle between men and women doesn’t really exist at all.
Many commentators have noted Walz’s “dadness,” and there’s no doubt that his classic middle-American dad vibe infuriates the church fathers of MAGA. That’s because Walz is a new-school dad, essentially the type that Dinnerstein prophesied.
The piece concludes that the patriarchy as once existed is “dead” only to be replaced by the likes of Walz and his immutable qualities of toughness and resilience, further upbraiding anyone who disagrees.
“Embracing what comes next is not admitting defeat, or asking men to accept something less. The choice for men is not between conquering or being conquered. The choice is whether to dance with women and children or to dance with ghosts,” it ends.
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