Something’s Not Quite Right Here

How to fight against weird

Republicans are weird.

I don’t mean weird in the way the people we most want to hang out with are weird; I mean it in the creepy, off-putting way of a Ron DeSantis, from his odd choice of footwear to his inability to smile like a human; or Kristie Noem, who actually thought including the story of her killing her puppy in cold blood would actually help her chances of getting picked as Donald’s vice president.

There’s nothing new about their weirdness, but Tim Walz, governor of Minnesaota has been calling it out in a way that resonates.

“The nation found out what we’ve all known in Minnesota: These guys are just weird,” he said. “The fascists depend on us going back, but we’re not afraid of weird people. We’re a little bit creeped out, but we’re not afraid.”

By adding J.D. Vance to the Republican ticket, Donald has increased the level of creepy weirdness exponentially, and the Harris campaign and its allies are taking every opportunity to capitalize on it. And, like the most effective political attacks, it works in part because it’s true.

As Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo put it, “The power of ‘weird’ is that it clusters together all of the things Democrats care about and want to prevent under the vast degenerate banner of Trumpism in a language that is intuitively understandable. People hear it and without having to recall or analyze the full menagerie of the Trumpian freakshow say, ‘Yeah … you’re right. Just weird.’

“It also communicates something that is far more than the sum of its parts. These guys have weird, creepy obsessions. They say off-putting, menacing things. They speak in an insider’s code that feels like you’re talking to some ’80s teenagers who’ve gone off the deep end into D&D. But they’re not just hanging around in their basement. They want to be in your bathroom. You wouldn’t feel comfortable being around them in person. You have an intuitive feeling there’s something not quite right about them. And that is as good a reason as any not to give them any power over your life. It’s a language, a vessel into which all the particulars can be poured, one in which they all suddenly make sense.”

Exactly.

It’s weird to worship a fascist game show host while pretending to be a Christian. It’s weird to complain that childless cat ladies are the real problem facing America; it’s weird to believe in “menstrual surveillance.” It’s weird to attack people who don’t have kids just because they don’t have kids. It’s weird to have a fetish for weapons of mass death. It’s weird to get angry at Star Wars and Disney movies or hate drag queens. It’s weird to hang out with Matt Gaetz.

That’s the Republican Party, which is why they’re so vulnerable to this line of attack. 

Most Americans are worried about getting the kids to soccer practice, or putting dinner on the table, and or paying the bills. They don’t go around talking about Hunter Biden’s laptop or anchor babies. Since the days of the Tea Party, the Republican establishment has constantly given in to the party’s most fanatical constituents until the fanatics took over the party and then the Republicans became the fanatics. Donald has been able to do as much damage as he’s done in such a relatively short period of time, because Republics have been paving the way for somebody like him for decades.

Because of Donald’s grip on the Republican Party, it can be easy to forget what an electoral disaster he’s been. Just look at the midterm results of 2018 and 2022 or the 2020 election when a record 81 million people voted to get rid of him. Normal people are repulsed by him. 

Over the weekend, Donald promised to end democracy while addressing a Bitcoin conference (during which he also demonstrated that he doesn’t know what Bitcoin is). At the same time, his running mate did the right-wing media rounds to try and walk back his years of attacks on American women.

Democrats, on the other hand, are excited. The energy in this race has turned from a defensive fear that the creeps might win, to the joy rallying behind a leader who is willing and able to call out just how abnormal and unfit the competition is.

In his piece, Josh Marshall points out that, “It's good to mock and make fun of people who are bad or want to do bad things.” I agree and have been saying some version of that with that since 2020. Yes, Donald is dangerous, but he's not dangerous because he's a strong he-man. He's dangerous because he's a deeply weak, deeply insecure man who's bolstered at every turn by people who thirst for power and see him as the quickest way to get it. He’s dangerous because he will do anything to appease his base, he will do anything to secure the assistance of those pulling his strings, in order to get power, and money, and immunity for himself.

Donald, though, is not somebody to fear on his own. He is a weak, fragile man who is yes, deeply weird and deeply disturbed. He needs to be mocked mercilessly. He told us recently, that the one thing he hates, probably more than anything else, is to be laughed at.

For us not to laugh at him, not to mock him is to miss an opportunity. It isn't mean or impolite or in bad form to mock and laugh at or make fun of somebody who wants to destroy us. We have to go full throttle because as we get closer to the election, we’re going to see the terms of the fight unfold and as bad as what they’ve been saying so far has been, it’s going to get worse.

We need to be ready to counter the danger with joy, the weirdness with mockery. And we need to keep laughing.