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Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance and Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick Tim Walz are set for the stage on Tuesday to debate each other ahead of the November election in United States.
Vance, on the Republican ticket, has a conservative definition of family and has been criticised for denouncing “childless cat ladies” who have no “direct interest” in the welfare of the country, he alleged, because they have no children.
As a former soldier from a lower-class family, Vance sees himself as the spokesman for the downtrodden Americans with whom he grew up.
Vance also criticises progressive ideas of family which, in his view, encourage “people to shift spouses like they change their underwear.”
On the other side, Democrat Tim Walz strives to project a different image of the good family man — one who does not hesitate to show a more vulnerable side of himself, like when discussing the fertility problems he faced with his wife, Gwen.
“I can remember praying each night for a phone call,” he recounted at the Democratic National Convention.
“The pit in your stomach when the phone would ring, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked.”
The Minnesota governor, a former teacher, also frequently retells the story of how he helped create the first LGBTQ student club at the high school where he taught, long before gay rights were widely socially accepted.
Walz, who also coached high school football and served 24 years in the National Guard, still plays into a classic male archetype, whether he is discussing his favourite hardware store on TikTok or boasting about his hunting skills.
Walz said: “I guarantee you he (Vance) can’t shoot pheasants like I can.
According to a communications studies professor at Colorado State University, Karrin Vasby Anderson, “The Harris campaign is offering alternatives to the ‘toxic masculinity’ that has captured the Republican Party. Walz isn’t alone," she added.
According to recent polls, a growing number of young men are throwing their support behind Trump, whose rhetoric centres on strength, authority, and even violence.
The Republican is capitalising on this well of support by increasing the number of events he holds with influencers involved in cryptocurrency, video games, and combat sports, many of whom have followings in the tens of millions.
In the extremely close race for the White House, Trump hopes to motivate an electorate that historically has not had a strong turnout at the polls.
Harris, on the other hand, often says that “the true measure of strength is based on who you lift up, not who you beat down.”
The Democrat, who fiercely defends abortion rights, is banking on mobilising women, who vote in greater numbers than men in the United States.
AFP
