When The Going Gets Weird...
Things are getting weird in politics. Or, to be more accurate, lots of people are now commenting on how weird things have gotten. Democrats have newly fallen in love with the word "weird," to describe Donald Trump and his running mate. Which, of course, reminded me of the best weird quote of all time, Hunter S. Thompson's immortal: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Maybe it's just because Silly Season is upon us -- that time when Congress blows off an entire month and the punditocracy is left with very little to talk about. During these dog days of August, all sorts of silly things get blown monstrously out of proportion, just because there's nothing else for the political commentators to comment on. Of course, this year is also a presidential election year, so there's always the horserace to obsess over, and in a few weeks the Democrats will launch their own national convention and dominate the airwaves for a solid week. So there's that to look forward to, at least.
Meanwhile, weirdness abounds. So far, one Democrat in particular seems to be leading the new meme:
"These are weird people on the other side," [Minnesota Governor Tim] Walz said on MSNBC last week. "They want to take books away, they want to be in your [medical] exam room... Don't get sugarcoating this. These are weird ideas."
"Listen to the guy," Walz said in a separate interview on CNN over the weekend, referring to Trump. "He's talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind... Have you ever seen the guy laugh? That seems very weird to me, that an adult can go through six and a half years of being in the public eye. If he has laughed, it's at someone, not with someone. That is weird behavior."
But the taunt has been around for longer than that, it's just when Walz recently used it everyone else picked up on it (perhaps because he is reportedly under consideration for the vice-presidential slot on the ticket). Here is an earlier use of the term that HuffPost dug up:
"[Donald Trump is] just gonna have a bunch of creepy weirdos working in the White House that are intent on destroying government from the inside and pursuing their super creepy, weird political agendas," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters in June.
Since Walz started using it, the Harris campaign has picked it up and run with it. In a press release last week (jauntily titled: "Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal's Fox News Appearance"), one of their bullet points under "Main takeaways Trump gave to the American people" was: "Trump is old and quite weird?" The campaign later called JD Vance weird too, just for good measure.
Other Democrats are joining in the fun too:
"Assigning extra votes to certain people based on the size of their family is weird," Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote Sunday on X, formerly Twitter, describing a policy idea Vance once suggested. "Banning library books is weird. Government being in people's bedroom is weird. Government being in the exam room is weird."
. . .
"Being obsessed with repressing women is goofy. Trying to watch what LGBTQ+ people do all the time is abnormal. Punishing people who don't have biological offspring is creepy," [Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] wrote. "It's an incel platform, dude. It's SUPER weird. And people need to know."
It seems this is getting under a few Republicans' skins. Vivek Ramaswamy, who is either unaware of the concept of irony or has just never met Donald Trump, complained about the trend on social media:
This whole 'they're weird' argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile. This is a presidential election, not a high school prom queen contest. It's also a tad ironic coming from the party that preaches "diversity & inclusion." Win on policy if you can, but cut the crap please.
That's pretty rich coming from the party that just nominated Donald Trump for the third time, you've got to admit. Trump, after all, is the absolute king (prom or otherwise) of dumb and juvenile insults.
Also, it's not like Republicans don't use the word too:
[JD] Vance, in an interview Friday about his past critique of Democrats as "childless cat ladies," said that leftist rhetoric in favor of remaining child-free is "profoundly weird and dangerous." He followed that up with a post on X the next day.
"It's almost like these people don't want young people starting families or something," Vance wrote, commenting on a video of Harris describing "climate anxiety" and fear of the future. "Really weird stuff."
The National Republican Senatorial Committee also highlighted what it called Harris' "weird" qualities in a memo last week, including her laughter, her love of Venn diagrams, and her affinity for electric school buses.
Of course, being a geek about Venn diagrams isn't even in the same ballpark of weirdness as rambling about Hannibal Lecter or "electrocution versus being eaten by a shark" -- two of Trump's favorite stump-speech quips, these days.
Was this the best taunt Democrats could have come up with for Trump? That's impossible to say, but to most Democrats watching all this it is not the language used, it is instead the fact that Democrats are fighting back against Trump. They are attempting to use a tried-and-true method for defeating bullies: expose them for who they are, and then laugh at them. That's a powerful tool, if deployed effectively.
This all bodes well for the Harris campaign, it would seem. Can you picture Harris laughing at Trump and calling him weird on a debate stage? I can. Can you picture how he's going to react to being laughed at? Oh, there are all kinds of ways he could blow his stack!
Juvenile? Well, sure. Dumb? Perhaps. But that's the new reality of American politics -- the new presidential playing field is no more than a schoolyard playground. Which, of course (even though Ramaswamy seems to be woefully ignorant of the fact) is completely Trump's doing. The only thing that may be truly different is that this time maybe -- just maybe, mind you -- somebody's figured out how to fight back. No Republican has ever been able to accomplish this feat, although during the 2016 and 2024 GOP primaries plenty of them tried. Joe Biden had effective lines he used against Trump, but they were never what you'd call "at Trump's juvenile level." If Harris can bottle this lightning, more power to her.
After all, the going's already gotten truly weird, over the past eight years. It's time for Democrats to up their game to the pro level.
[Editorial Aside: Wouldn't it have been amusing to see what Hunter S. Thompson would have written about the entire Trump era? Hoo boy... that would have been all kinds of fun to read....]
-- Chris Weigant
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Juvenile? Well, sure. Dumb? Perhaps. But that's the new reality of American politics -- the new presidential playing field is no more than a schoolyard playground.
So, basically, Democrats are saying "If we can't beat them, join them!!"
Is THAT the Democrat strategy???
To try to out-Trump President Trump???
Yea... THAT's a good plan... :eyeroll:
Weird is Democrats throwing Israel under the bus.
THAT is weird...
Not to mention downright un-American...
Harris and the Democrats are taking the hysterical Trump/America hate to a whole new level..
The BS hysterical Anti-SCOTUS wet dream is simply a symptom of that... :eyeroll:
Punch a bully in the nose. And considering how pathetic his trial insults have been, it seems to be working quite well.
The other aim of making fun of Trump's schtick by participating in it is to make Kamala the cool person to vote for over the tired and old petty insults of Trump. In his search for an insult he seems to be recycling a lot of old material and is having trouble staying relevant. It's so two terms ago. Boring.
Ya think President Trump is "weird"???
Not even CLOSE....
http://mfccfl.us/weird1.png
THAT ^^^ is weird!!! :eyeroll:
LAUGHABLY weird...
Hell, even uber Progressive Joy Behar says that going the "weird" strategy and trying to out-Trump President Trump is a LUSER of a tactic...
You just HAVE to know that Democrats are in trouble when they lose Behar... :D
"Weird" seems to have Michale's panties in a bunch. Looks like it's working quite well...
Ya wanna know what's really REALLY weird???
Democrats have this weird dichotomy going on here...
On the ONE hand, Democrats claim that they are repulsed and disgusted by President Trump's antics..
Yet, on the OTHER hand, they cheer Democrat leadership when that leadership ACTS like President Trump...
Talk about a schizophrenic dichotomy going on, eh???
Democrats are simply weird... :eyeroll:
As much as I dislike violence, punching a bully in the nose is sometimes the best solution. No different here...
Of course I'm more than happy to talk policy. Let's start with the specifics of Trump's "fix" so Christians never have to vote again. If it's not Project 2025 then it must be something, right?
Re the votes quotes:
I think Trump is trolling. You can rationalize away "never have to vote again" as "this election is the most important in your lifetime, so even if you don't usually vote, don't want to vote, please at least just vote this once". You can rationalize "we don't need votes" as "take the right positions, and the votes will take care of themselves", or as "we've got such a big lead that we don't have to worry about it". You can rationalize practically anything, and Trump knows that his fans will. But he also knows it will get mainstream institutionalist types upset, which in turn will get lots of attention for him -- which is his top priority.
Everyone has an excuse for it, but until he clarifies what he is talking about, I'm taking him at face value. He had a chance to clarify with the fox news drone leading him as best she could and he still doubled down. Evil or demented, don't let him off the hook...
Dan,
But he also knows it will get mainstream institutionalist types upset, which in turn will get lots of attention for him -- which is his top priority.
Exactly.
The Trump/America haters will ascribe any evil/nefarious motives they can, just to feed their hate & bigotry..
President Trump is a master at pulling their strings and pushing their 'hysterical' buttons...
We saw it all before when President Trump ran in 2016.. All the hysterical claims of what would happen if President Trump won.. And, per their norm, NONE OF IT ever came to pass. Much like their global warming/end of the world hysteria..
It's simply a desperation move because they know Harris can't win... :D
Just waiting for the headline 'Donald Ducks'....
http://mfccfl.us/weird2.jpg
Biden's Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Energy
Yea... It's REPUBLICANS who are the "weird" ones....
:epic eyeroll:
Michale,
I appreciate your efforts to, well, you know. :)
Liz,
I appreciate your efforts to, well, you know. :)
Just trying to do my part.. :D
I am not going to ease up on Democrats and the threat they represent..
But I'll try to be less Trumpy (and now, Harrisy) about it... :D
That's music to my ears, Michale!
Liz,
That's music to my ears, Michale!
I'se aim to please.. :D
I simply took JLs words to heart...
if you're dissatisfied with the tone of the discussion directed toward you, you can change the tone of the discussion coming from you.
That is certainly great advice to live by ...
Trump Flipped Out That ‘Lunatic’ Project 2025 Could Tank His Campaign
Trump can try to distance himself from this, but 70 to 80 percent of the people who wrote the book are going to be in his second administration — the cabinet, under secretaries, assistant secretaries, the senior advisers. They’re all going to be the foot soldiers in a second Trump administration!” one of Project 2025’s contributors, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, tells Rolling Stone. “You can’t look at this constellation of organizations and people without seeing that they’re all his people.
A true albatross over his shoulders. Trump is never distancing himself from Project 2025. Not as long as JD Vance is his VP nominee (nice forward, dude) and a huge chunk of his people involved...
Liz,
That is certainly great advice to live by ...
"Soiently!! nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk.."
-Curly
:D
"Weird" is such a brilliant move. I've been seeing quite often in other forums "weird" just being embraced. Trump tosses out some dumb insult and it's "what a weird thing to say", some political move, "those guys are so weird" instead of the usual whataboutisms. But the word has such nuance that when Michale tries to use it, it fails miserably. Hint: it's you guys who have hyped up and fear drag queens. Kamala with a drag queen to the left: ya, so? The fun weird like Keep Portland weird is quite different from the creepy weird of Trump. And if our local right winger is any indication, the right just does not get nuance...
We saw it all before when President Trump ran in 2016.. All the hysterical claims of what would happen if President Trump won.. And, per their norm, NONE OF IT ever came to pass.
Oh, quite the contrary; in point of fact, a whole lot of what people claimed would happen was actually attempted by Trump: He just failed at it and has subsequently been indicted for his direct involvement in the attempts.
Much like their global warming/end of the world hysteria..
Attempt at a straw man argument except that global warming is actually happening and backed up by decades of data, despite all protestations to the contrary.
As for the "end of the world hysteria," that description more closely resembles the QAnon/MAGA conspiracy theories that showcase Donald Trump as a messianic figure assembling an army of "good Christians" (themselves) in opposition to Democrats that they claim are blood-drinking, child-trafficking, Satan-worshiping elites whom they will ultimately defeat in "the Storm" (coming any day now... and goalposts and dates ever moving) in Biblical fashion.
It would be comical if it wasn't absolute batshit right-wingnut conspiracy crazy.