Having A Normal One

It’s hard to figure out what’s even weird in modern America

Kamala Harris wants you to think her political opponents are downright weird. This new line of attack against Donald Trump and the GOP is all journalists, liberal influencers, and Democratic lawmakers can talk about now. The weird attack has magically replaced the “fascist” angle previously favored by the Left. Instead of being a direct threat to democracy, Trump is now just “creepy” and scaring the ladies.

It does make sense for Democrats to adopt it.

Campaigns always try to portray the other side as the one out of sync with “normal” Americans. Typically, this involves attacking the opposition as “extreme” or “un-American.”  Democrats did this in the midterms with the “Ultra MAGA” line. Republicans are currently attacking Kamala and her party as “radical.” 

However, the Democrats’ hysterics over democracy in peril haven’t been working. Despite shrieking that Trump will end America as we know it, the former president continues to lead in the polls. Americans no longer seem to think Trump will be a fascist dictator. They appear to think it’s weird to think that.

Now, the left doles out rhetoric about how Trump and his running mate JD Vance are just weird. Rather than a feverish cry to worry about democracy, the new attack relies on social anxiety. The pitch tells Americans they will look strange to their friends and neighbors if they vote for Trump. They don’t want to seem weird to those they know by supporting the former president. They need to be normal and vote for the Democrats.

It’s a very feminine pitch. Sometimes Democrats sound like they’re describing unwanted advances or ex-boyfriends rather than the political opposition. Hillary Clinton described Republicans as “weird, creepy and controlling.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the Trump agenda as the “incel platform.” A Democratic PAC ran an ad of creepy, middle-aged white men relishing the opportunity to control women’s bodies under Trump. There’s a very specific audience for this messaging–and it’s not men.

Women wield a lot of power in our society. They drive most cultural and consumer trends. They’re the majority of college graduates. And they increasingly determine elections. It makes perfect sense for a campaign to rely on “mean girls” rhetoric. What better way to appeal to women voters than to call the other side weird and creepy? The Kamala campaign represents another example of the feminization of American society. 

There is a larger question opened up by the weird attack. What even is weird in modern America? And what’s considered normal?

There are a lot of weird things about the Democrats. Megan Thee Stallion twerks at Kamala rallies. Democrats openly discuss their support for transing kids and teaching gender theory to second graders. Their leaders display their pronouns and raise bail money for criminals. This is all very weird. Yet, this is coming from the party declaring itself the normal ones.

That’s not to say the other side doesn’t have its fair share of weird. There’s a lot of weird ideas bubbling up on the Right. Vance and various conservative influencers are doubling down on a crusade against the childless in the middle of a presidential campaign. There are prominent conservative influencers who insist the Earth may be flat. Belief that Michelle Obama is a man is a mainstream idea in conservative discourse. To ordinary people, this would all be weird.

While aspects of right-wing discourse count as weird, the policies Donald Trump champions are way more popular than Kamala’s. The majority of Americans back mass deportations, a strong border, tough-on-crime measures, sensible economics, and anti-wokeness. The Democratic agenda is far more out of line with what average Americans want.

But the weird attack is based more on vibes than policy. Thanks to the media, liberals can portray their opponents as the weird ones. 

That brings us back to the question of what even is normal in our society. There are two elements that can stand as normalcy.

One is regime ideology, which promotes liberal democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, pride month, foreign interventions against “autocracy,” and a whole lot of other things right-wingers don’t like. This is essential to Kamala’s pitch. Her form of liberalism is what’s “normal.” Just listen to CNN. Conservatives don’t have much standing on these grounds, but this is not the only standard of normal.

The other normie element is the culture and behavior of mainstream America. While mainstream America doesn’t fully accept the official ideology, it acquiesces to much of it. Mainstream America is pretty diverse. It likes rap and black football stars. It despises “racism” and other forms of bigotry. It’s secular, and even when normies are religious, it’s a more tolerant Christianity than the traditional faith. It’s down with tattoos and weed. It wants abortion to remain legal. It doesn’t flinch at public sexuality and shrugs its shoulders at gay couples. Wokeness can test the limits of normies. Average Americans still don’t want to list their pronouns or endure white privilege checking at work. But they aren’t reactionaries. They’re mostly concerned with getting new stuff, watching sports, and going about their daily lives. They don’t entertain ideas that may set them apart from the herd.

The Right, in both its mainstream and dissident forms, sees itself as the expression of normal America. It likes to imagine that it gives voice to the Silent Majority. However, much of what the Right cares about is now out-of-sync with what normies want. The normies don’t desire a “Christian Nationalist” America. They simply want to be left alone to pursue their own whims. Many of those whims run counter to what the Right envisions. These whims differ among our nation’s various social groups. That’s partially why America has a tough time agreeing to shared cultural norms, and public places are a disastrous combination of different styles and manners. The only consensus we can agree to is “mind your own business” and “live and let live.” One could call this “cultural libertarianism.”

The Kamala campaign hopes to appeal to both senses of normality to win in November. Some comments made by Vance and others may help them, but in the end, voters can still recognize Kamala as someone who will disrupt their lives. They may be weirded out by attacks on “childless cat ladies,” yet they’re still disturbed by illegals pouring across the border, high food prices, and a radical social agenda that forces them to accept freaks as normal. 

Democrats hope Americans can be browbeaten to conform to their standards. It’s not a terrible bet. Maybe Americans will be duped into thinking it’s normal to vote for open borders Kamala. But one hopes the normies, in all their short-sightedness and lack of higher principles, will be better than that.