"Old and quite weird": Democrats finally discover new effective attack — and Republicans hate it

I find it quite strange that "old and weird" seems to work better than "corrupt and criminal".

The reason it works is because there is no refuting it other than, "Nah uh!" It's almost the equivalent to repeating someone's argument back to them in a tone to sound stupid. HOWEVER, this tactic works when arguing with a kindergartner, so it works here too.

Laughter is a great weapon, as even the Irish Bards of old knew. And the plus point is that it is true, they are old and weird. They want to go round inspecting children's genitals.....definitely weird. They rather mothers die than get medical treatment in an event of a dangerous pregnancy. Likewise, they think child marriages are OK. They think forcing women to have babies is OK but passing laws to help those babies live is not. They want to go back in time and roll back all the progress society has made in being kinder, fairer and more inclusive. They love conspiracies and think they have special secret knowledge . There is so much more,I hope someone turns it all into a catchy song that goes viral.

Yep. Watching the Republican cult of personality be exposed this way has given me genuine hope for the future.

It's been ten years since that freak started remaking the Republican party in his own image. Ten years since his face and voice started dominating the news cycle for no good reason (and lots of bad ones). Ten years of his clown show.

But now, at long last, I have hope that it will finally end. That the name "Donald Trump" will fade from our political vocabulary, and be spoken in shame and disgust when spoken at all.

When reactionaries tell you to stop something it's because it is effective.

If they cry and foam at the mouth you should go even harder.

They're a minority of weirdos and should be reminded of such at every opportunity.

Republicans are so old... and just soo weird.

And trump doesn't laugh or have a dog?

There's a lot of other very bad things going on, but they are also just... They're just so fucking weird?

Yes, but doesn't he look tired?

ok, i'm eating crow now, for criticizing the "he's weird" strategy. #happyiwaswrong

they really are mentally 5 years old

At this point can we consider that MAGA is the "new" and Americanized version of the Nazi party, and that Trump is trying to become a somehow worse version of Hitler?

Sure, there's no rhetoric about the Arian race in the public literature, but the ideals and concepts are pretty similar. Instead of considering anyone who is non-white, non-blonde, non-blue eyed, to be less than, it's instead about "God loving Christians" and basically the concept of, if you're not with us then you are not an American.

Transpose some conceptual groups for fairly equal in size/scope groups, and it's essentially the same playbook.

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. C'mon America... You were a big factor in defeating the Nazis.... DON'T BECOME THEM

Look, I'm sorry I didn't vote in 2016 but I've voted every time since then and started paying attention to local politics. Now I have a protected bike lane next to my neighborhood and the roads aren't full of holes

So my buddy and I were bored in the car yesterday and I made up a game called “let’s bet how many minutes it will take me to scan through AM radio and hear that the immigrants are invading.” I was really sad when I won in, I shit you not, less than 3 minutes. But before he got to that when I first tuned in he was going on a whole rant about being butthurt that the orange one was being called a weirdo. It really upset the guy which was just absolutely hilarious. Oh and he managed to slip a transphobic pronoun joke in the middle of the rant. Remember all of this happened within less than 3 minutes of me starting at the bottom of the AM dial.

I'm weird as shit. My life is a freak show and a fail whale working together to make a fail-ipolis.

And I'm fucking goofy.

Though I'm not trying to lead a nation with it. So I take no offense with this.

still don't understand what's wrong with being weird. republicans just hate it because their bigoted mind associate it with being different and they hate that.

The only problem I have is I'm weird and I think weird is cool, I like weird people and I love towns that have a motto that is like keep Portland weird. I celebrate weird, but I guess it's time to normalize the weird I've been supporting and ostracize the truly weird

I think the term "creepy" would also be effective.

I hate this messaging because I’m proudly weird. It’s a rhetorical step towards ostracizing and othering those who are different. I think this is a really bad move that can and will backfire, especially when the opponent is fascism.

Weird is just anything you aren’t used to. Kamala is “weird” to trump supporters who aren’t used to seeing women or POCs in positions of power. Compared to every president before her, she stands out as a lot weirder than Trump.

“You’re weird!” Is a really bad strategy. Queer and weird were once synonyms, and mostly still are. Don’t disenfranchise your base.

I don't know if Republicans hate it as much as we just love it.

Thanks to Media Bias Fact Check for their access to the API.
Please consider supporting them by donating.

should be worth noting that the only people who said "weird" was a pejorative were republicans, though.

Im glad they finally found something that sticks but sometimes I wish Kendrick just came out one time to call Trump a certified pedophile. Id laugh so hard I'd piss myself and possibly even someone else.

promising to a return to normalcy and baseline competency.

Here's the thing. Biden hails from an era of politics where one would absolutely get lit up by the media for breaking decorum.

It's been a slow decline for some time, but the Republicans along with their propaganda outlet Fox News have slowly changed the country's thermostat on this over the last few decades. Much like wearing a winter parka in the summer heat, maintaining complete and total political decorum in this climate is no longer a boon, it's a handicap. We all saw Biden take one heck of a beating while taking the high road and never really taking the (rage) bait to hit back in quite the same way. But while that approach is performing on virtue, the optics are one of a punching bag in the eyes of many crucial voters.

So tactics have been changed, and boy have they ever.

What I appreciate about this approach is that it's actually very light-handed, considering all that could be done. It also looks downright polite compared to how much right-wing media has run with hyperbole and even outright fabrication. Yet running on the rather casual sounding observation of "old and weird" is generating actual results. It's also refreshing to loudly point out what we were all baffled about from the get-go: "Don't they know? I mean, they're seeing the same stuff we are, right?"

I welcome this new shift to "bless your heart" politics.

Well then maybe they should stop being such weirdos.

This is also the tactic employed in major hiphop feud Kdot v. Drake

Not sure it's all that new - I've heard bluegal on The Professional Left call many, many, many Republicans creepy weirdos for years and years.

Because they are very, very weird and quite creepy when you actually learn what they want to do to America and to Americans.

I don’t know who thinks “weird” is some kind of effective attack. IMO just happens to coincide with the wave of feel-good associated with Biden stepping aside and Harris stepping up. Personally I find it pretty lame. stick with dishing back what the republicans threw at Biden - trump is old, he can’t form coherent sentences, question his health, and show everyone he wants a hereditary dictatorship that subjugates women and fellates the ultra wealthy so the US can be just another shitty kleptocracy.

Great! Now do all of the GOP congress and senate.

If you say so. Weird Al Yankovic is a fan favorite of many old people. I can perfectly see people wearing “Old and weird” purposely. There’s no shortage of old people wearing edgy T-shirts, specially in the Trump crowd.

I'm no psychologist, but the irony of praising being called "brat" while touting calling the opposition "weird" makes me feel like I'm back in preschool. These lowered bars, man ... definitely on our way to surpassing Idiocracy.

Democrats gonna be the party of traditional values i guess.

Republicans hate this one weird trick.

I've always prided myself on being weird....how can 'weird' be such an insult? I'm going to have to test this out on a couple conservatives before I believe this.

Serious question. Why do we need "attacks" at the ready? We don't need to stoop to their level

Edit: I'm not trying to be a centrist with this. I just think it (somewhat) encourages more internal strife and I'm a little afraid a civil war (or maybe something less dramatic) is coming. I can tell you I've never had my mind changed by somebody who treated me poorly. I still respect everybody's opinion who disagrees with me, though!