The joyful Minnesota governor is a valuable spokesperson for Harris whose background and personality can help the Democratic ticket undermine Trump’s efforts to woo America’s men.
Tim Walz’s first official speech on the Democratic ticket displayed all the reasons that Kamala Harris has been lauded for picking the Minnesota governor as her running mate. Personally, I think one outshines all the rest.
Walz’s military background and his work as a high school teacher and football coach, along with his palpable joy and open expressions of compassion for people in need, offer America a vision of what manhood can look like — he’s a “joyful warrior” offering a vision in contrast with what’s being offered by Donald Trump’s bravado-driven campaign.
And he’s clearly willing to challenge Team Trump on that front. He displayed that even before he received the call to join Harris’ campaign, using public appearances to refer to Trump and his allies as “bullies” who are truly weak at heart and by mocking the GOP ticket for “running for He-Man Women Haters Club or something.”
Most of what’s commonly referred to as “western” society does not typically see things that way, though. That’s part of why I personally think normalizing therapy by suggesting it regularly to people, even ones who don’t currently have “serious” problems is so important.
Many of us did not get the “tools” necessary to deal with simple normal every day parts of life like suffering (in any degree) from either our parents, from people around us, or from society at large.
That also means stuff like
Might deter someone who could otherwise benefit.
You got it exactly. Normalizing taking mental health and self-care as important and necessary parts of life is necessary to undo damage done by toxic societal values and expected gender norms. If someone is just having a bad day, they’re going to know that they don’t need therapy. If, on the other hand, they have been internalizing a lot of dark feelings or have untreated disorders, someone suggesting it might be enough for them to say “hey, you know what, maybe I’ll give that a try”.