Tim Walz's Masculinity Is Terrifying to Republicans

Since Tuesday, when Vice President Kamala Harris introduced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Republicans have scaled back their initial attacks on Harris’ race and gender. Instead, they have targeted the traditional signifiers of Walz’s masculinity.

It’s hardly surprising. Any liberal Democrat whose resume includes football coach, military veteran and sharp-shooting hunter is a challenge to MAGA mythology, which posits that liberalism and feminism threaten traditional masculinity, so you’d better vote Republican before marauding Amazons take your endangered man card away.

At their packed campaign launch in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Harris lauded “Coach” Walz, honored his veteran status and beamed with pride that Walz “was known as one of Capitol Hill’s best marksmen, winning a bipartisan sharpshooting contest year after year.”

Those traditional manly traits are threatening enough on their own. But if such a marksman, state-title-winning football coach and regular guy can happily play second fiddle to a Black woman running for president, then what does that say about MAGA’s efforts to reverse-engineer the 21st century? After all, if a middle-aged, heterosexual White guy who likes to hunt doesn’t have to live in constant fear of losing status and doesn’t need traditional gender and racial hierarchies to validate his life choices, then what does he need Donald Trump and JD Vance for?

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-08-09/tim-walz-isn-t-a-typical-democrat-that-scares-republicans