Calling All White People, Part 66
TODAY’S EPISODE: Tim Walz is the political and cultural touchpoint many white guys needed
He’s not just another “old white guy.” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate for the presidential race, is something a lot of white guys needed more than water in the middle of a desert—and many of us didn’t even know it until now.
Look, I am a progressive white guy who leans left—sometimes far left—on most issues. And I’ve moved more leftward the older I’ve gotten, no matter how much so many people try to convince me I’ll get more conservative as I get older (and I’m 56 now). I’ve never identified with the kind of white men who have supported Republicans generally, much less those who vote for the likes of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Michele Bachman, Marjorie Taylor Greene or others of that ilk.
I didn’t need Walz to move me toward the Democrats. Honestly, despite the fact a majority of white guys vote Republican, a rather large number of white men didn’t need Walz to draw them toward a Harris presidential ticket either. But you know, a fair number of white men who fall into that “swing vote” category might warm to a Harris presidency with someone like Walz on the ballot with her.
He speaks to a lot of white men in a way that so many politicians who are white men do not.
In fact, I daresay he has created a way for a large number of white men to rediscover their humanity.
I know, it sounds dramatic. But think about it. For a certain segment of men in particular—middle-aged white men mostly—Walz is not just a figure they wish they could be in many ways, but a representation of how they see themselves. To see him on a national stage like this so prominently validates them and gives them hope. Hope for the country’s future after huge disappointments like Trump and lesser disappointments like Joe Biden. Hope that they can succeed in a way that won’t just matter to them but to other people as well. Hope that all is not lost for middle-aged and senior men in the ongoing tale of our country.
I was born in 1968, so I’m just a few years into the zone for being Gen X. Walz, meanwhile, lies at the very end of the Boomer period, born in 1964 (he isn’t nearly as old as some of y’all think; he looks a little rough around the edges but he and Harris are almost the same age). So, he shares a lot of cultural touchpoints and concerns and dreams that many of my peers and myself possess.
He is not rolling in money, having a reported net worth of $330,000, which is less than my working-class Boomer dad—and my dad certainly isn’t rich either. He is a guy with a solid, Midwest point of view. He seems down-to-earth, he is mostly soft-spoken from what I see, but he also knows how to fight when he has to. He seems centered on family. His history and the way people talk about his past as a teacher and coach all the way up to his gubernatorial actions suggest he has always been supportive of those most in need of support and eager to learn about things he doesn’t have familiarity with.
And perhaps it is there that so many of us white guys feel our humanity vindicated and reflected here on the national stage. Guys like us who are peers age-wise to Walz—and perhaps our sons too who are much younger—see the kind of guy who has lived in the analog era and adapted to a digital one. The kind of guy who grew up with tacky homophobic and sexist jokes in school and early career and a lot of cultural insensitivity in media but who ended up raising or mentoring or interacting with people who once were the butt of those jokes—who realized they deserved space and respect and learned as well as he could how to be a good person in their lives.
So many guys around my age have hurt a little when white men get bashed in media and in memes. And it’s not because we feel personally attacked or that we don’t realize the majority of the white male population set the stage for a lot of well-deserved criticism. It’s because a lot of us were on board with things like respecting consent, learning preferred pronouns, watching out for certain words and keeping them out of our mouths. And while we were doing that, we watched so many men who looked like us out in front of the public doing either the exact opposite or simply ignoring the fact they needed to evolve with change rather than fight it—and getting success for being dicks.
We watched men who didn’t care make it harder for those of us who did. Who made it harder for us to do the good we wanted to see done in the world.
Walz isn’t perfect. People are already picking away at his image and I’m sure some skeleton or two or three will crop up. But I’m pretty sure that overall, this guy is the real deal. A white guy who gives a shit and tries to do what he can with whatever influence and leverage he has at the time to do better.
A lot of white guys will be seeing their own humanity in him. And maybe, just maybe, a lot of other white dudes will discover that the kind of compassionate humanity they haven’t nurtured enough looks a lot more desirable now.
[To find other installments of “Calling All White People,” click here]
