Walz-a-palooza!

This Week in PurpleAmerica is Going Along for the Ride!

What a WEEK! I tell ya. Living in Minnesota, Tim Walz Mania is sweeping the country by storm! It’s really great to see the rest of the country warm to something everyone in Minnesota has known for a long time— Walz is the genuine article.¹ What you are seeing on TV and in speeches, that’s who he really is. That’s how so many in Minnesota ALWAYS are. I know people who moved here from California who had a culture shock because they always thought everyone was too good to be true. Prince staying in Minnesota during the winter times because he always said “The cold weather keeps all the bad people away.” Can’t argue with that.

But back to Walz, the guy is legit. Unlike his ticketmate Kamala Harris, who has demonstrated an ambition to move up the ladder, Walz is someone who just kept his head down, did his job well, and when an opening appeared above him, others convinced him to take it up, to which he obliged. He just does the job.

Now, as a Vice President, there really isn’t much of a job. It’s one of the reasons Harris chose Walz over Shapiro, who aspired to acquire more responsibilities. The VPs only duties are really 1) preside over the Senate², 2) vote when there is a tie in the Senate, and 3) move up to the Presidency should the person in the top job no longer be able to fulfill the duties of the office. That’s it really. It’s more a position of potential power than it is actual power. Harris is benefitting now because Biden chose her as the VP and it was too late to choose someone else really, so it really is a position where you have to be in the right place at the right time.³ Walz indicated he was willing to do whatever Harris asked of him (the good soldier he is) and that’s how she chose him.

So he can essentially be shut out of executive team meetings and all sorts of stuff. But that may not be too bad. He could travel the country, particularly those areas Democrats are not good at campaigning in, and work to build up rural and suburban party organizations. The payoff there would be huge.

Minnesota is not just the land of 10,000 lakes, Paul Bunyan and losing four Super Bowls. Its the land of VPs too, with Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey being two of the last five successful Democratic Party VPs. Should Walz and Harris win, they can make it 3 of 6 for a good 50%.

PurpleAmerica’s People of the Past Week

The Good

Minnesota. What can I tell ya about Tim Walz. Geez. Ya know! It’s like good old fashioned virtue suddenly became popular again, eh! It makes me anxious to watch Fargo all over again. Andt that Trump fella? Uff Da.⁴ What a weird guy. Now not weird in the normal sense mind ya, but weird in the fat orange buffoon screaming at the buffet at Pizza Ranch kinda guy, ya know what I mean?

The Bad

The Whole “Bear” Debate. Back a few months I was agitated that women/liberals generally were going around saying they would feel safer coming across a bear in the woods than a single man. As a guy, I found the whole thing insulting. Men are much more positive and supportive than the women taking the bear in this scenario were giving them credit for. Now along comes Walz and those same women are now saying they would choose Walz. Of course they would; but he’s no different than MOST men in this scenario. They’re just finally acknowledging that guys, whether it be their sons, brothers, fathers or often those random people on the street, that they can be good people (at least, better than a bear). But still those liberals have no qualms about their own hypocrisy here. Frankly, I’d like to see an apology for the whole Bear scenario. Speaking of Bears…

RFK Jr. So let me get this right candidate Brainworm. You hit a bear cub with your car, planned on cutting it up for bear meat, put it in your trunk, GO OUT TO DINNER IN MANHATTAN, come out realizing that the Bear is still in your trunk stinking the thing up, and then say “Ya know, I’m just going to dump the body in Central Park.”? It’s like Curb Your Enthusiasm meets the Sopranos. Its particularly scary that the sanest part of that whole video where he was describing this was Roseanne Barr listening intently to it.

The Ugly

J.D. Vance. In attempting to smear Tim Walz’s military service, all Vance did was force other vets to step up and dismiss the attacks and call into question Vance’s military record and Trump’s lack of one. Talk about backfiring.

Trump. This press conference on Thursday was a disaster in every sense of the word. The best thing about the last two weeks is that we hadn’t heard much from the psychotic former President, but now that he’s come out of his hole like a groundhog on Feb. 2, we’re all kind of wishing he’d just go back into his hole and not come out until spring.

Have a nominee for us to consider? Send an email to purpleamericanunity@gmail.com!

PurpleAmerica Pop Culture Random Top Five

This week: The Top 5 Minnesota Film References

Minnesota has a long history of inclusion into music, television and movies. Today we look only at it’s filmography and some of the best, most lasting references.

5. Purple Rain. Minnesota has an outstanding nightlife, showcased by this 1984 Prince Classic. To watch a concert at First Avenue is a great experience⁵ and to purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka….well, I’ll leave that for Apollonia Kotero to tell you.

4. The Mighty Ducks. Minnesota Hockey, what more can be said.

3. Grumpy Old Men. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon take their “Odd Couple” schtick to the Ice Fishing setting of Wabasha, Minnesota and it’s a riot. Everyone up here knows more than a few people who remind them of either Matthau or Lemmon.

2. North Country. Based on the first sexual harrassment case based on a “toxic work environment”, the movie starring Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson covers the Iron Range and hardscrabble Minnesota rural northwoods life. Theron in particular is good as she sheds the glamour for grime and a mullet cut.

1. Fargo. I’d lose my Minnesota card if I didn’t put this #1. The Coen Brothers, from Minnesota, chose the North Star state as a setting for a kidnapping comedy/drama. What makes it so perfect though is the pitch perfect way it encapsulates so many of the residents here. Even the locals here joke at how well the Coen’s (and particularly Frances McDormand) skewered Minnesota Nice.

PurpleAmerica’s Best Articles of the Week

“The GOP is a Messy Soap Opera Right Now,” by Tom Nichols at the Atlantic.

“Pocan Fun,” by Liam Kerr over at WelcomeStack.org.⁶

PurpleAmerica’s Subscriber Mail

When we here at PurpleAmerica Respond to the Teeming Millions (well, we’re still working on that first million)

I don’t know whether it was everyone still on a high over the Walz pick or what, but you now how many emails I got from the teeming purple millions this week? One.

PurpleAmerica-

Why didn’t you ever tell us about how great Tim Walz was? You’ve been holding out on us!

Moi? I would DO that, to YOU? Naw, you must have me confused with someone else. Going back through the archive, a quick search of Tim Walz brings up nearly 2 dozen different entries. The first entry? It actually goes back to the very FIRST WEEK I STARTED POSTING AS PURPLEAMERICA! I’ve continuously pointed to Tim Walz as an example of a Democrat who could win in rural America by campaigning hard and messaging things right, appealing to the moderate consensus instead of the polarizing party stalwarts. The Democratic Party needs more people like Tim Walz and I’m thrilled to see him elevated for the VP slot. If he spends the next four or eight years doing nothing but building up the Dem organization in rural America, you can be looking at a lot of great things to come for a very long time.

Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at purpleamericanunity@gmail.com

PurpleAmerica’s Historical Note from This Week

This week marks the 79th year since Hiroshima and Nagasaki were leveled by two atomic weapons, the only ones ever used in war. Last year, I wrote about Tstuoma Yamaguchi, the only person to have survived ground zero at BOTH blasts. His is a fantastic story and rather than reiterate it here, I’ll just post a link where you can go read it for yourself.

PurpleAmerica’s Dad/Uncle/Cheesy Joke of the Week

What do you get when you cross Tim Walz with Velveeta?

A cheesy America’s Dad Joke.

And with that…

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Footnotes and Fun Stuff

1. As originally from Oshkosh, WI, I’ve always found the motto of Oshkosh B’Gosh, of which my great grandmother once worked for sewing overalls, rather fitting to describe someone who is so authentic.

2. Though that is usually done by the Senate Pro Tem, or on a rotating basis within the majority party.

3. Something she is making the most of. I realize some would think it unfair that I characterize her this way, but had Biden chose anyone else, they would be reaping the windfall right now in the same vein.

4. I’ve been asked by several people over the years what “Uff Da” means. The best way I can describe it is that its the Scandinavian Minnesota way of of saying “Fuggedaboutit” that mobsters and New Jerseyians are so fond of.

5. My favorite is that I saw Gary Clark Jr. there in the front row. Transcendant.

6. For the record, we endorsed Rebecca Cooke last year here. Walz’s elevation to the VP slot helps make districts like the WI-03 much more winnable. Would love to see them kick Derrick Van Orden out of Congress.