Do likability politics still work?
Disclaimer: All articles published under this section are the opinions of the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Cor Chronicle
Likability has always been a talking point in American politics, from Nixon’s deadened TV debate appearance in the 1960 election, to Ted Cruz’s Cancun vacation during the great Texas freeze. Much of the American electorate yearns for candidates with whom they not only agree policy-wise, but also whom they like.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are both polarizing figures who have both large fanatical followings and large factions who find them grossly unlikeable. As the two presidential candidates are stuck in a stalemate, the likability race falls to the vice-presidential candidates. In this article I wish to set aside policy for a moment and explore the optics surrounding my former governor Tim Walzand JD Vance.
When I was a child growing up in Saint Paul, MN the greatest thing a governor could do, in the eyes of a sticky six-year-old, was cancel school when temperatures reached below -20 degrees. We called these days “Dayton Days” after the then governor, Mark Dayton, whose call it was to cancel school due to extreme weather in the state.
I had no idea about any of his policies, spending, or stances on social issues. Yet, Dayton would wish us luck on our days off, and that was enough for me to like him. Like it or not, many American voters still operate on a similar notion of electoral affability, and perception matters.
Tim Walz entered the governor’s mansion in 2018, after serving five terms in the House of Representatives. He was energetic, a former teacher and football coach from the rural Minnesota River Valley and had led a massive grass-roots campaign. His background was a perfect recipe for victory in the progressive landscape of the state.
MN has always had a peculiar political climate that has been dominated by a populist coalition for decades. In 1944, the Democratic party merged with the successful left-wing Farmer-Labor Party to create the DFL, or Democratic Farmer Labor Party, which has been able to mobilize voters successfully in urban, suburban and rural areas better than many of the strictly democratic parties in other states.
This brand of progressive populism relies on likeability and a certain level of stunt casting; it is after all a state that elected WWE wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor and SNL comedian Al Franken as senator.
Walz is a familiar protype to many in middle America: he is a veteran, a hunter and a slightly out of touch, yet fiery man. He gives an Americana edge to the Harris Campaign that previously was predominantly coastal and bourgeois.
He is staunchly left-wing in an accessible and seemingly authentic way. He was a football coach in rural MN in the 1990’s but served as advisor for the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance as well, bridging the aesthetic gap between “American Values” and progressive social movement. Everything about his image fits into the conservative archetype of the all-American man, yet his policies are in line with, if not further to the left than, Harris’.
Walz is able to succeed in the likability game against his opponent Vance simply because there is not a disconnect between how he presents himself and how he is. Walz is very unapologetic about his beliefs and home, and he does not have the internal conflicts about identity and placement that Vance does.
Vance wants to posit himself as an outsider candidate fighting against elitism, but at the same time maintain his credentials. This results in an awkward attempt to distance himself from the “establishment,” while keeping his Yale Law Diploma unscathed in the process. Undecided voters pick up on the smarminess and pandering pretty easily and in comparison to Walz, who honestly could benefit from slightly more PR training, Vance appears off-putting.
Many conservatives have been working overtime to turn the public reception of Walz sour, but they never seem to choose the right method to do so. Ann Coulter’s comments about how “weird” it was that Walz’s 17-year-old son was so happy that he cried tears for joy upon his father’s acceptance of the vice-presidential nomination at the DNC only made Walz seem more likable, and it reflected poorly on the grifter from the black lagoon.
The NRA’s attempt to bust Walz as a poser also massively backfired. They tweeted a video of Walz unloading a gun and erroneously claimed that he was trying and failing to load a gun, resulting in an embarrassing community note correction.
Walz is by no means a perfect candidate or person, but conservatives cannot seem to grasp that his appeal is mainly in his lack of personality performance. They desperately want him to be something that he is not, and, in doing so, they appear desperate. Conservatives have long played defense in the game of likability, but they perhaps should begin to play some offense.
Patrick Deavel is a junior English and history major.