Why Donald Trump’s Attacks on Tim Walz Keep Falling Flat | Opinion

Maybe it’s because I lost my dad 10 years ago, this year. Maybe it’s because I’m a dad myself. Maybe it’s just because I have a heart. But I, like so many others, teared up at the unbridled, show of pure love and pride from Gus Walz as his dad accepted the nomination for vice president of the United States at the Democratic National Convention.
And it wasn’t just Gus, if you noticed. Gov. Tim Walz’s daughter, Hope, also was tearing up. His wife, Gwen, also was emotional. If there’s ever been a more publicly loving family on the national political stage, I’d love to see it.
That love and joy that came from them, and that comes from Tim Walz at every appearance as he holds his hand to his heart and purses his lips in appreciation, is why the sleazy attacks on his honorable military service are falling so miserably flat.
In fact, before yesterday’s speech, the Trump campaign released a letter from 50 Members of Congress who served attacking Walz. Not only did the attack not land, but the letter itself was guilty of the very same semantic mistakes that they say amounted to “stolen valor” when Walz did it. Before that, senator and Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance tried and failed to land a blow on Walz. It was a textbook case of walking right into a rake.
The Trump campaign keeps trying to make their attacks stick, but can’t. In fact, not only are the attacks not sticking, but Walz keeps gaining in popularity as Vance becomes more and more reviled by voters.
It’s not hard to see why. Walz isn’t just the neighborhood coach, or the teacher everyone wanted to have class with, or the hunting and fishing partner, or the guy always willing to lend you some tools and a helping hand. Yes, those are all true. But the Walz family is the family whose house everyone wanted to have dinner at, as a kid.
In my own life, especially when my parents’ marriage was breaking down, intact families like those meant a lot. They welcomed me in, treated me like one of their own, and provided a sense of stability and support.
For others out there, there may be different reasons they liked to have dinner with that family. And for others, still, they can relate because they were that family.
Imagine, now, someone talking crap about that family and the dad with cheap shots. Other than an eye roll or recoiling at the pettiness, no one would react much. That’s exactly what is happening now, with the attacks on Walz.
It isn’t that Tim Walz is perfect. No one is. But if you’re going to attack him for his imperfections, you better be sure they’re so bad that they’ll rock someone’s feelings toward him and his family. And if something doesn’t rise to that level, then it’s probably best not to launch personal attacks, lest they backfire and make you the one that ends up more hated.
You would think that a political campaign would recognize this, and realize their attacks are backfiring, as their target grows in popularity, while their own ticket continues to decline. But lately, it doesn’t seem like the Trump campaign is as much a professional political operation as it is a collection of people ensconced in a gold-leafed echo chamber at their country club, convinced that just one more attack in a string of failing attacks will break the dam.
So, I’m sure the Trump campaign will continue to go after Walz’s service. In my head, I hear the immortal words of TV’s Chief Wiggum to Homer Simpson when trying to dig himself out of a hole, “No, no, dig up, stupid!”
Eric Schmeltzer is a Los Angeles-based political consultant who served as press secretary to Rep. Jerry Nadler and former-Gov. Howard Dean.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.