This is the most I’ve enjoyed political news in years. Democrats have a great presidential candidate, talented Democratic governors are publicly auditioning to be Kamala Harris’s vice president, and the Trump-Vance ticket is down in the dumps. One of the best parts of the past week is the Harris campaign’s adoption of new messaging around Donald Trump, JD Vance and the whole MAGA Republican klan. The messaging is: those guys are weirdos, they’re freaks, they’re creeps. Vance and Trump are “weird” and their beliefs and politics are weird. That’s been hammered in quickly by the Harris campaign’s daily press releases, and the guys auditioning for VP have driven it home as they blanket cable news with the gospel of Kamala. I think Governor Tim Walz might have even been the first one to make the pivot – he was possibly the first one to just flat-out say “these guys are weirdos and creeps and everything they say is weird.” The reason it’s so powerful is that the MAGAts don’t know how to respond without sounding super-weird. From Salon’s “‘Old and quite weird’: Democrats finally discover new effective attack — and Republicans hate it.”
President Joe Biden won in 2020 largely by promising to a return to normalcy and baseline competency. In 2024, Democrats are making a similar argument but more forcibly: They’re pointing, laughing and dismissing Trump and his circus as a total freak show to which we can’t return.
“The fascists depend on fear,” as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz put it over the weekend. “The fascists depend on us going back. But we are not afraid of weird people. We’re a little bit creeped out, but we are not afraid.”
Walz, currently being vetted as a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, came out of nowhere and, in a series of TV appearances over the last two weeks, effectively crafted Democrats’ latest messaging on Trump and his new sidekick, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio. The Republican ticket is a pair of odd dudes: one, 78, is visibly declining and rambling about whatever enters into his mind before a crowd of people wearing diapers and oversized t-shirts with his face on it, while the other, 39, is having fights with America’s sweetheart, Jennifer Aniston, while seeming like a guy who’d corner you at a party to talk about “this trans stuff” and birth rates in Europe. They’re strange guys with sick obsessions, as the two-term Democratic governor and former congressman put it on MSNBC last week.
“You know there’s something wrong with people when they talk about freedom — freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom to be in your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read,” Walz said. “That stuff is weird. They come across as weird. They seem obsessed with this.”
After nearly a decade of being forced to take the host of “The Apprentice” seriously, Democrats are increasingly calling “bulls**t” on the whole charade. Trump is not a normal opponent who one should (or can) engage in a high-minded debate about tariffs and industrial policy. He’s a clown: scary, but often sad and ultimately a joke.
You might say, why is this the most effective messaging strategy for Democrats? After eight-plus years of dealing with Trump and Trumpism, why has “these are just weird dudes” resonated so much? I think it works now because Trump is a known entity and because those creeps have been waving their MAGA freak flags proudly now for years. But yes, it’s incredibly effective. JD Vance is spending the bulk of his time now trying to look and sound like a man who doesn’t f–k couches or surf for dolphin p0rn or think about how to monitor every woman’s pap smear. Speaking of, this new ad is absolutely bonkers and very, very effective.
THESE GUYS ARE JUST WEIRD.
JD Vance and his Project 2025 weirdos want to control your bedroom. Will you let them? pic.twitter.com/JnNbuRzkAH
— Won’t PAC Down (@wontpacdown) July 29, 2024
lol holy shit they’re losing it. Everyone keep it up pic.twitter.com/3Pd39MiKL6
— Tim (@trouble_man90) July 29, 2024
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- National Harbor, MA – **FILE PHOTOS** Donald Trump has named US Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, further elevating the Ohio Republican who has adopted the former president’s populist agenda after years of pointed criticism of Trump. Vance, a freshman, entered Congress with the help of Trump, whose endorsement helped him win a contentious race in 2022. Vance was critical of Trump in 2016, and six years later, Trump publicly humiliated Vance even after endorsing him in the 2022 election. In the Senate, Vance has been an outspoken supporter of Trump and often votes in allegiance with the former president’s interests. He opposed a Ukraine aid bill earlier this year, adopting Trump’s criticism of providing more aid. He is also close with Donald Trump Jr. Vance, a former venture capitalist, veteran and author, was reported to be among the candidates who received vice-presidential vetting materials from the Trump campaign. Pictured Here: Sen. J.D. Vance speaks during the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. **SHOT ON 02/23/2024** Pictured: JD Vance BACKGRID USA 15 JULY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- National Harbor, MA – **FILE PHOTOS** Donald Trump has named US Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, further elevating the Ohio Republican who has adopted the former president’s populist agenda after years of pointed criticism of Trump. Vance, a freshman, entered Congress with the help of Trump, whose endorsement helped him win a contentious race in 2022. Vance was critical of Trump in 2016, and six years later, Trump publicly humiliated Vance even after endorsing him in the 2022 election. In the Senate, Vance has been an outspoken supporter of Trump and often votes in allegiance with the former president’s interests. He opposed a Ukraine aid bill earlier this year, adopting Trump’s criticism of providing more aid. He is also close with Donald Trump Jr. Vance, a former venture capitalist, veteran and author, was reported to be among the candidates who received vice-presidential vetting materials from the Trump campaign. Pictured Here: Sen. J.D. Vance speaks during the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. **SHOT ON 02/23/2024** Pictured: JD Vance BACKGRID USA 15 JULY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Milwaukee, WISC – A person takes a photo on their phone as United States Senator JD Vance (Republican of Ohio) is officially nominated for the office of Vice President at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Fiserv Forum. Pictured: JD Vance BACKGRID USA 15 JULY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Milwaukee, WISC – A person takes a photo on their phone as United States Senator JD Vance (Republican of Ohio) is officially nominated for the office of Vice President at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Fiserv Forum. Pictured: JD Vance BACKGRID USA 15 JULY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Milwaukee, WISC – A person takes a photo on their phone as United States Senator JD Vance (Republican of Ohio) is officially nominated for the office of Vice President at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Fiserv Forum. Pictured: JD Vance BACKGRID USA 15 JULY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
OMG I LOVE this ad!! Would watch it over and over again (and likely will if it’s not on Fox). But will the weirdos get it?! Some will, quite a few won’t. Maybe it will get a few of them to THINK for a change?
They’re not the ones who need to get it.
We just need enough of them to become disillusioned enough to stay home…uh…on their couches on election day!
I saw it, in all places, on Matt Walsh’s Twitter page. The guy who spends 90% of his time talking about the genitals of children is incensed by it
I can’t stop watching this ad and dying laughing. It’s so so good. I was reading on an NYT newsletter that the “fascist, threat-to-democracy” messaging only appeals to liberal base. Swing voters want to know about economy and get turned off by that truth. Does this “weird” messaging thread the needle somehow?
Why does “weird” work so well (beyond the fact that the Republicans ARE saying weird isht)? Because TRUMP does and did this -all- -the- -time-! He’s trained everyone to think that these descriptors are normal communication. I love this for him.
And that Won’t PAC down ad is seriously creepy and hilarious.
As someone who was goth in high school I’ve spent my life embracing the weird and to me it’s a good word. I like weird. It’s bumming me out that this is the word they’re going with. I like those bumper stickers that say Stay Weird. Creepy would work for them. Skeevy. Psychotic. Dangerous. Un-American. But I wish our side would leave the word weird alone. It’s way too benign to describe them.
creepy and skeevy definitely covers Vance and his pathological obsession with people who don’t have children (his childless cat lady was tame compared to other things he’s said about people who don’t have children – this commentary is a long pattern going back years)
They want to hear the left use word that evoke fear: dangerous, psychotic even un-American which is why laughing at how ludicrous they are bugs them while being described as a threat actually makes them feel good
I think that’s why the word “weird” works so well. We’ve normalized quite a lot of deeply troubling shit — and even psychotic and demented thought processes. In contrast, I can imagine a little kid looking innocently at some of these politicians and accurately saying: “That’s just weird”. And clarity ensues.
IMO, harsher words would bring up harsher defenses against using those words — instead of encouraging us to focus and to see more clearly what’s really there.
Personally, I like: DEEPLY weird.
I agree, @Delphine.
I love the simplicity of the messaging, I love that it leans into DT’s childish level of discourse, I love how the GOP keeps yelling that Dems should be engaging in higher level policy discussions instead of name-calling (since they keep telling on their candidate every time they say stuff like that)!
But I wish with all my heart they’d chosen words like “creepy,” or “gross,” heck, even “absurd” would do.
Let’s not demonize being weird! Being weird is great.
Just not this creepy MAGA weird. So, let’s call it by more a more accurate (but equally simple, playground-taunt level) term.
That’s why weird works. A “normal” person isn’t worried about being called weird and if anything they’ll accept it (I too can be pretty weird).
It’s the weirdos who are outraged when they’re called “weird” that makes this great. MAGAs want to be feared, but their biggest fears are being seen as anything other than the “status quo” to adhere to. Being called out for not being normal (because really, there is NOTHING normal with their obsessions over women’s bedroom business and who is using what bathroom) has been the first thing to get them this choked and outraged in years. It is amazing.
Nothing’s wrong with being a lil’ weird 🙂 But everything is wrong with being a weirdo about other people’s lives.
This was my knee-jerk reaction too, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. Because ultimately it *not* weird to wear black, or listen to punk, or be gay or trans, or be fat, or have blue hair, etc. These are all normal things that lots of people do and are. It’s what these people do that’s weird. How DARE they act like they’re the normies!
@Kelsey. +1000 It’s okay to be weird. It’s not okay to be weird about other people’s reproductive rights, acceptable books, sexual identity, etc.,..
It is weird to say that your vote only matters if you’ve given birth. It’s weird to say that people that have multiple children should be given extra votes because of nonsense reasoning.
I’m weird too, and I don’t give a fuck ALL DAY what type of verbiage appeals to swing voters as long as it makes them swing BLUE. Dems can start using my dead mother’s name as an epithet if they think it’ll give them some fucking traction and I get my goddamn reproductive rights back.
It’s working because you can’t argue intellectually with idiots.. you have to use simple language that they can understand like the word “weird”..
Bizarre works instead of weird. But again it’s so benign. They’re far more sinister than that. Trump is saying straight up he’s going to end voting if he wins. That’s not weird it’s un-American and anti-constitutional. What he and Vance are trying to do is so much worse than weird. It’s diabolical.
So we don’t call a spade a spade because the messaging is too hysterical or something? Whatever works I guess.
IMHO, the GOP is both dangerous and weird. But weird works because weird is not to be taken seriously. The worst thing to do to a narcissist is to laugh at them.
This is why I like it. It’s dismissive of them and you know Trump hates being dismissed.
And a lot of the comments I’m seeing are also including words like creepy, so I think the Dems are doing a good job of making it clear they’re weird and creepy like a clown who hangs out in a sewer, not weird like someone who is just different from the mainstream.
The goal is to get him to blow his top very publicly and see what comes flying out of his unfiltered mouth.. they need to keep needling at his overinflated ego until that happens.
This messaging works because shame works. Instead of giving anyone the “benefit of the doubt” and patiently explaining bodily autonomy, just say “ew, why do you care so much about what I do in my bedroom, you creep.” That way, instead of constantly being forced to graciously argue or educate, you decline any responsibility whatsoever for their weird creepy obsession with sex and tradwives etc.
Per the psychologist the late Bob Altemeyer, there is an “authoritarian follower” personality. Besides “conventionalism” (rigid adherence to social norms) and a desire to see anyone not following the “rules” be punished, they feel a lack of autonomy themselves, so they willingly submit to people who sound like they know what they’re doing. When you point out that someone is being a creep, it puts responsibility squarely on them for their own behavior, without the protection of their in-group—which is a follower’s worst nightmare.
Because it IS just f*cking weird to believe in QAnon and conspiracy theories, and to be reoccupied with what people read, what they do in their private lives, who they want to love, and who they want to be. White Christian Nationalists and MAGA heads should get a life and stop worrying about how the rest of us live ours.
I’ll never forget early in the Trump presidency when it came out that Sean Spicer swallowed like a pack of gum a day my BF at the time said “it’s bad enough they are racist and fascists, do they have to be such freaks too?”
Remember when Sean Spicer ran and HID IN THE BUSHES after Trump fired Comey??
WEIRD.
Remember Sean Spicer?! So much bizarre stuff has happened that I forgot about some of it.
Remember when Anthony Scaramucci said he was more of a front-stabbing person and got fired after 11 days. So, the media started using “Mooch” as unit of measurement. Pretty weird to me.
I think I prefer creepy weird. Bc weird can be cute and cool too. But yeah these people are creepy weird. I read that Kamala Harris was once asked what she would do if Trump stalked her like he did Hillary on the debate stage and she said she’d just look at him and say why are you being so weird. I wonder if Walz had read that too when he made his statement about these guys being weird. Either way, he and the VP are on the same wavelength .
I think weird is perfect because at its core, the MAGA movement, the Moms for Liberty, all that – its just WEIRD.
why are you so invested in how other parents raise their children, or what other kids read? Why are you so invested in who someone else marries, when it has zero effect on you? Why do you care what bathroom someone uses?
Why your followers dress like the American flag threw up on them? Why do you think “Lets go brandon” (haha RIP to that one lol) was some sort of epic takedown? why do you think you’re funny or witty or smart when you’re just……..WEIRD.
Remember that weird snake poem Trump used to recite? WEIRD.
They’re disturbing and scary and dangerous as well, but they’re also just these really weird people.
and also, you know they hate it when they’re dismissed as being weird, because Trump and Vance think they’re the epitome of alpha males, lol.
It’s effective because we’ve been living The Weirdness for 8 years. We don’t need to detail how it’s weird. We don’t need think pieces. We just need to look at each other, go “That was f*cking weird, wasn’t it?” The people that know it’s weird feel relieved that the elephant in the room is being called an elephant. The people getting defensive look…. *squinty side eye* WEIRD.
Also, Conservatives are obsessed with being “the norm.” The default. The majority. When you point out that they’re actually weird, it sends them into another rage dimension.
Awesome points! I think remembering —and using that last bit against them will continue to be a very effective strategy.
Yes to all your points. We’ve been saying since pre-2016 a big problem was the normalisation of all the frankly unhinged and yes, weird, stuff he would say and do and all the other MAGAs have fallen into line and pretended it”s fine and normal. Nothing to see here folks. Calling it out is the absolute ‘you see he has no clothes on don’t you?’ It’s almost cathartic.
Yes!!! I love all these comments. The opposite of normalization is calling it weird!! How many times have you said to a friend lately “it’s been a weird couple of years.” Time to move on!
Where have they been hiding Governor Walz? Love his girl dad energy. He has no patience for toxic masculinity.
And the actors in that advert – chef’s kiss.
I’m loving that the floodgates have opened. People are finally able to articulate what everyone has been thinking for years.
In addition to Tim Walz and his girl dad energy, he’s also (em-)powered by their family’s ginger and white cat, Honey.
Just here in MN where he protects our rights and ensures we have some of the best quality of life in the country. Sorry, not sorry. 🤣
Finally … !!!! The Dems are fighting back and it’s glorious.
This is what Democrats should have been doing against Trump all along- spelling out plainly that the things he says and does are just not normal. He slings his dumb insults at everyone but he completely crumbles if someone says something “mean” about him. His own party primary competitors should have been doing this to him themselves- I will never understand why every single one of them decided to kiss the ring instead of pointing and yelling HEY THIS GUY WEARS ORANGE MAKEUP, he would have gone home crying before he ever got anywhere near the White House.
This is what happened with Barry Goldwater: Dems said “In your guts you know he’s nuts.” Unfortunately Reagan normalized their wacko ideas. I’m so happy we are de-normalizing being a reactionary now!
I love the weird strategy. You can use it on any republican. You want to teach the Bible in school and arm teachers with guns? Weird! It’s brilliant.
It is effective messaging because it’s true and straight to the point. The MAGA right got off on being called dangerous, think it was cool and then DT got fake shot at and the media tried to hammer President Biden about rightly calling that man a threat to democracy. These people are are weird and creepy, obsessed with what goes on in peoples personal lives and digging into our bedroom secrets. We have to take them down in November.
Good point. Calling them dangerous or even evil gets them off. Which is gross. They are creepers.
Someone pointed out it was a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Someone finally said it! They are deeply creepy.
It was reported that Bush said “That was some f*cking weird shit.” after listening to Trump’s inauguration speech. It works because it is the most simple description of Trumpism. Even George Bush sees it and he had Dick Cheney as his VP, the guy who shot a man in his face and made him apologize publicly to him for causing him stress 😭😭
Weird is a much nicer word than a lot of the words that occur to me like evil, treasonous, or fraud. Seth Meyers has been harping about Trump’s weirdness for years. Calling Trump weird is kind of wholesome and it doesn’t incite violence. Using milder words than ‘the devil incarnate’ might help crossover voting. Some R’s are talking about voting him out but staying Republican.
Well, here is one elected Republican official who isn’t weird, and I want to thank him.
Republican Mayor John Giles in Arizona wrote an op-ed endorsing Kamala Harris. It was scathing in calling out Trump and laying out in detail every way in which Trump has hurt Arizona and democracy while also praising Biden/Harris. Thank you, Mayor Giles.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2024/07/29/mesa-mayor-republican-vote-kamala-harris/74583703007/
I mentioned this the other day. They’re not fazed by fascist, misogynist, liar, etc., probably think this makes them seem tough, but weird? That’s laughing at them & they hate to be laughed at. Tim Walz saying it & Kamala’s team running with it is just brilliant.
„Ridiculo” works like a charm for this dementors! #mykidhasharrypotterphase.
I am loving Tim Walz’s description of MAGA as being weird. The more I have heard him speak lately, the more I am pulling for Kamala Harris to pick him as her VP! He has a tremendous record in his state of MN for all that he has accomplished, and he would literally wipe the floor with weirdo JD Vance in the VP debate.
Yes, he would. The weird is effective. The reason I voted for him multiple times? His heartfelt message of help your neighbors and mind your own damn business. That sums it up nicely. The man has good values and the courage of his convictions. He’s done right by MN.
I called Donnie Dump a fuckin clueless weirdo two weeks ago, great minds think alike😏
It’s a bout time the Dems get spicy with results. This election has just gotten interesting and I am here for it🤣🤣