I think the Democrats’ new “MAGA Republicans are weird” strategy is quite possibly the savviest political strategy I’ve seen in a very long time. First of all, it has a virtue that is vanishingly rare in political messaging: it is objectively true. As I pointed out long ago,
…the urge to censor is a mental illness. No normal person wants to control what other people think, and no sane person could believe that he can control what anyone else thinks. Only a psychotic believes that he can be directly affected by the thoughts inside another person’s brain…
The same could be said about the desire to control others’ private behavior, entertainment choices, or reproductive choices, yet authoritarians of all stripes are absolutely obsessed with controlling other people’s words, actions, and even thoughts. Of course, this applies equally to all authoritarians, regardless of which dogma they quote to justify sending armed thugs to brutalize everyone who disagrees with them. But even one who despises both sides of the duopoly must admit that since shortly after Trump’s election in 2016 (and especially since 2020), MAGA messaging has become increasingly detached from anything remotely resembling human decency or objective reality. Furthermore, while the modern Democratic party has opted for a “Big Tent” approach, pulling in more than a few people who don’t mind (or even embrace) being called strange, eccentric, or queer, modern Republicans have positioned themselves as the “normal” ones and their policies as those desired by the majority. As a result, being called “weird” upsets them far more than it would upset their opponents, and as the poster I quoted at the top points out, they keep flailing around, thus making them look even weirder. The only sure way for MAGAists to defeat the messaging is to stop being creepy freaks obsessed with other people’s genitalia, and judging by what I’ve seen from evangelical “Christians” over the past four decades, that is completely beyond their ability.
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
YES!!! Censorship IS a mental illness! I worked at AVN, an adult magazine, and attended Values Voters Summits and CPACs to report on them and I met SO MANY people who wanted to censor sexual depictions. Some of those conventions/people are chronicled in my book, Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx.
Except that every really interesting person I have known in my life has gotten used to being called “weird”. I guess you do not want their votes?
Dude, WTF?
1) Did you actually READ the essay (not skim) before making not one but TWO replies ignoring the section stating, “while the modern Democratic party has opted for a ‘Big Tent’ approach, pulling in more than a few people who don’t mind (or even embrace) being called strange, eccentric, or queer, modern Republicans have positioned themselves as the ‘normal’ ones and their policies as those desired by the majority. As a result, being called ‘weird’ upsets them far more than it would upset their opponents“?
2) What is the antecedent of “you” in your second sentence? I am not a political strategist nor a member of the Democratic Party; neither am I running for office. And I do not participate in any “Most Popular Authoritarian Psychopath” poll.
3) You seem to be laboring under some weird delusion that this is some sort of childish “rah-rah” for one psychopath over another, rather than an analysis of a tactic of applied psychology. This is bizarre given my deep hostility toward partisanism, which on Twitter earns an instant mute for anyone attempting it in my timeline.
I trust that makes things more clear.
Think about this: Some of the coolest, blue-ish, most tolerant cities in America have official slogans of “Keep Austin/Portland/etc weird.” I just do not think this word cuts as cleanly as many would wish.
For what It is worth, I have been regulary reading virtually all of Maggies postings going almost back to the beginning (2009?). I have rarely commented here, for all kinds of reasons – but mostly because I have thought you have gotten most things right without any help from me.
And the antecent of “you” in this contex was the silliness of Mark Kernes. Obviously.
IMHO, Calling normal undecided voters “weird persons” will just piss them off.
Except that you STILL aren’t reading. They aren’t calling “undecided voters” weird; they’re calling the objectively-freakish MAGA politicians weird.
And you seem oddly fixated on this.
Maggie; sincere thanks for putting out some rational and competely sane responses to my recent comments. This inspires and enables, in my mind anyway, my sense and inspiration to write about how I honestly think about these issues impendening.
And I am Hyper-aware that this is totally your homespace and I am at best, a semi- invitited interloper.
Nonetheless, here I go:
For Example.
Hillary Clinton burned down her chances in 2016 by giving a speech calling a lot of her potential voters (who leaned towards DJT “A basket of deplorables”. Because the mid range of more or less undecided voter could not be sure whether Hilliary was condemning them to death or not. I mean, Who wants to take a chance voting for a candidate that just might hate their guts?
Do not insult/demonise/threaten the undecided. This should be simple.
Real artists of political invective always go to extreme lengths to make clear who their actual enemies are and to avoid collateral damage. Like not calling random ambilovlent folks weird/stupid/racist/etc.
When exact names are used, the undecided can more easily undertand that they are not being targetted.