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.