The Harris-Walz ticket may be the youth ticket — relatively speaking — in the 2024 election, but Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz isn’t pretending to be Gen Y or Gen Z. In the clip below, Walz talks about an experience he shared with others like him — “some of us who have less hair and who are old enough.”
Those lucky folks “can remember,” Walz says, a time before America’s political divide became the all-consuming beast it’s turned into. Back then, Walz waxes nostalgic, people could go to a Thanksgiving dinner and watch a football game with relatives and not get waylaid by arguments over political differences.
Remember the time when you could go to Thanksgiving with your relatives and not complain about politics the whole time?
This election is a chance to bring up the joy and look to the future. pic.twitter.com/IuIYgjQkAb
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 19, 2024
Remembering those peaceable days fondly, Walz says he longs for a return to the civilities provided by citizens who shared a common respect for and a commitment to “democracy, a commitment to personal freedom, a commitment to public education, a commitment to infrastructure.”
Walz says he wants younger citizens to experience that too, implying that such days could be on the horizon if his side emerges victorious in November. Blaming the GOP ticket for much of the division sowing, Walz claims the high ground saying of his side, “we don’t call each other names” and repeating his common claim that respect is due to one’s neighbors.
[NOTE: Politicians from both parties have lamented lost civility at the holiday table — it’s a real thing — but Walz’s strange claim that his side doesn’t call other people names is hardly accurate, as he himself leapt to national attention just a month ago for saying — in a viral moment — that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are “weird.”]
“For the young people here,” Walz says, “They maybe haven’t seen a campaign like this…because of COVID, because of things that’s happening [sic]. This is a chance to bring out that joy, to turn the page and look to the future.”
Walz’s mention of COVID and Thanksgiving turned out to be a combustible combination in the comments. Besides the army of bots posting, the comments also featured real people with proud MAGA profiles still bitterly angry over COVID precautions Walz took as governor in 2020, which included limiting gatherings at Thanksgiving to immediate family members to try to stop the spread of the virus.
No, but I do remember that time you banned Thanksgiving because of a virus that was 99.9% survivable for reasonably healthy people.
— IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) August 19, 2024