Kamala Harris wants you to think her political opponents are straight strange. This new line of attack against Donald Trump and the GOP is what all journalists, liberal influencers and Democratic lawmakers can now talk about. The strange 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 women.
It makes sense that Democrats would embrace it.
Campaigns always try to portray the other side as being out of sync with “normal” Americans. This usually involves attacking the opposition as “extreme” or “un-American.” The Democrats did it in the midterms with the “Ultra MAGA” line. Republicans are currently attacking Kamala and her party as “radicals.”
However, Democrats' hysteria about democracy in peril has not worked. Despite shouting that Trump will end America as we know it, the former president continues to lead the polls. Americans no longer seem to think that Trump will be a fascist dictator. They seem to think so strange to think that
Now, the left is dishing out rhetoric about how Trump and his running mate JD Vance are freaks. More than a feverish cry for concern about democracy, the new attack is based on social anxiety. The camp tells Americans that they will look like strangers to their friends and neighbors if they vote for Trump. They don't want to seem strange to those they know supporting the former president. They have to be normal and vote for Democrats.
It is a very feminine field. Sometimes Democrats seem to be describing unwanted advances or ex-boyfriends rather than political opposition. Hillary Clinton described Republicans as “weird, creepy and controlling.” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described Trump's agenda as the “incel platform.” A Democratic PAC was introduced an advertisement for creepy, middle-aged white men relishing the opportunity to control women's bodies under Trump. There is a very specific audience for this message, and they are not men.
Women have a lot of power in our society. They drive most cultural and consumer trends. They are the majority of university graduates. And they increasingly determine the elections. It makes perfect sense for a campaign to rely on “bad girl” 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 bigger question left open by the strange attack. What is strange even in modern America? And what is considered normal?
There are many strange things about the Democrats. Megan Thee Stallion twerks at Kamala's rallies. Democrats openly discuss their support for transitioning children and teaching gender theory to second graders. Their leaders display their pronouns and collect bail money for criminals. This is all very strange. However, this comes from the party that declares itself the normals.
That's not to say the other side doesn't have its share of weirdness. There are a lot of weird ideas coming out on the right. Vance and several conservative influencers are doubling down on a crusade against the childless in the midst of a presidential campaign. There are prominent conservative influencers who insists that the Earth may be flat. The belief that Michelle Obama is a man is a dominant idea in conservative discourse. To normal people, all this would be strange.
While aspects of the right-wing speech count as odd, the policies Donald Trump advocates are far more popular than Kamala's. Most Americans support mass deportations, a strong border, tough-on-crime measures, a sensible economy, and anti-wokeness. The Democratic agenda is far more out of line with what average Americans want.
But the strange attack is based more on vibes than politics. Thanks to the media, liberals can portray their opponents as outliers.
This brings us back to the question of what is normal in our society. There are two items that can be normal.
One is the ideology of the regime, which promotes liberal democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, pride month, foreign interventions against “autocracy” and many other things that the right does not like. This is essential for the Kamala field. Their form of liberalism is what is “normal”. Just listen to CNN. Conservatives don't have much standing on these grounds, but that's not the only normal standard.
The other normative element is the culture and behavior of the mainstream United States. While mainstream America does not fully accept the official ideology, it does accept much of it. Mainstream America is quite diverse. He likes rap and black football stars. Scorn “racism” and other forms of bigotry. It is secular, and even when the rules are religious, it is a more tolerant Christianity than the traditional faith. He's down with tattoos and weed. He wants abortion to remain legal. He doesn't cringe at public sexuality and shrugs off gay couples. Awakening can test the limits of norms. Average Americans still don't want to list their pronouns or endure white privilege checking at work. But they are not reactionaries. They are mostly concerned with getting new things, watching sports and going about their daily lives. They do not entertain ideas that can differentiate them from the herd.
The right, in both mainstream and dissident form, sees itself as the expression of normal America. He likes to imagine that he gives a voice to the silent majority. However, much of what the right cares about is now out of sync with what the rules want. The rules do not desire a “Christian nationalist” America. They just want to be left alone to pursue their own whims. Many of these whims go against what the right imagines. These whims differ between different social groups in our country. This is partly why America has difficulty accepting shared cultural norms, and public places are a disastrous mix of different styles and manners. The only consensus we can agree on is “mind your own business” and “live and let live”. This could be called “cultural libertarianism”.
Kamala's campaign hopes to appeal to both senses of normalcy to win in November. Some comments made by Vance and others may help them, but in the end, voters may still recognize Kamala as someone who will disrupt their lives. They may be weirded out by attacks on “childless cat ladies,” but they're still disturbed by illegals crossing the border, high food prices, and a radical social agenda that forces them to accept monsters as normal.
Democrats hope that Americans can be beaten into conforming to their standards. Not a terrible bet. Maybe Americans will be tricked into thinking it's normal to vote for Kamala's open borders. But the rules, with all their shortsightedness and lack of higher principles, are expected to be better than this.
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