Inside the “Big Weirdo” Political Strategy Democrats Are Using to Taunt Republicans
Even Republican senators cheered Mitch McConnell despairing over the growing strangeness of his party.
In 2022, Explaining the GOP’s Midterm Election Performance (read: not good!) He basically said, oh my gosh, what can you do? “My view is do the best you can with the cards you’re dealt,” he said of his fellow Republicans. “Now, hopefully, next cycle, we’ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome.”
McConnell was the guy at the party who told everyone he was “with those guys, but he wasn’t,” with those guys” and hissed through gritted teeth at his colleagues to “try to act normal.”
No one is immune, regardless of their political party. Former President George W. Bush has gone one step further in criticizing Trump and his team as crackpots, a chilling sentiment that transcends any party loyalties he may have had. Officially, he attended Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 to witness the peaceful transfer of power. Unofficially, he is said to have turned to his companions when they leave the podium and say, “That was weird.”
TikTok and internet culture aren’t the only areas Harris’s campaign has tapped into. Modern dating parlance gives us the idea of ”the ick,” a term so relatable that it newly added to the Cambridge Dictionary.
It is defined as “the sudden feeling that you dislike someone or something or are no longer attracted to someone because of something they do.”
Once you have ick, you can’t get rid of it. Ever. In dating, it might mean losing someone’s phone number. In politics, Democrats hope that voters’ ick will translate into votes. Imagine high-ranking Democrats pulling voters aside like they’re their best friend and muttering, “Really? He? But he is so… strange.” Politicians cannot go all out, Walter Masterson styleBut they can escape a well-used gentle troll.
Of course, the Unified Theory of Disgust (Political Edition) is a nonpartisan doctrine, as evidenced by the fact that a severe case of disgust was the last straw that toppled Biden’s re-election campaign just days ago.
As Lawrence points out, “If you’re making an attack, and then something happens that reinforces it, it’s really hard to get away from it. Biden’s debate, when it started, [Republicans said]’He’s old, he’s old, he’s old,’ and then he looks old. There’s no turning back from that. You can’t get that out of people’s heads.”
Again, it goes both ways: “And so you have Democrats saying, ‘They’re wackos, they’re wackos, they’re wackos,’ and then old clips of JD Vance come up talking about women who have cats and talking about people who don’t have children not being allowed to vote. Donald Trump talk about Hannibal Lecter as if he were a real person. All of these things just build on themselves until they become part of the spirit of the times.”
Progressive voters are noticing this shift in language.and they did.
One person on X wondered why “anyone” would vote for a Republican. “Hateful, cruel, misogynistic and like, vibing in a weird way that’s offensive,” They write.
