"Pointing and laughing": Democrats leaned in
on "weird" and experts say it's working
Political experts said Democrats have stumbled upon an effective framing for the right-wing agenda
"We have people coming around saying, 'Yeah, we need to end no fault divorce." Like what are you talking about, man?" Karpf said.
"I haven't seen a rhetorical strategy this good, effective and fun in a long time. This was really sharp," David Karpf, a professor of strategic political communication at George Washington University.
"So what 'weird' [does by] focusing on style does is it allows the Democrats to talk about this in ways that are actually fun and shareable," Karpf said. "They are pointing and laughing at these people who want to do awful things and getting other people involved and saying, 'Yeah, that's off-putting. That doesn't sound like America at all.'"
"When Democrats are now saying, 'These guys just sound a bit weird,' it's because they've all been talking to each other for long enough that if you're not part of the Republican cinematic universe, none of it makes any sense," Karpf said. "When you take a step back, their policy proposals are serious and dangerous, but they're also just so off-putting and ridiculous."
That, Karpf continued, "works real well because it's a good way to pass the time and also spread the message, as opposed to being the people who are pounding the table saying, 'Take Project 2025 seriously, and please keep taking it as seriously for another four months until we can finally vote."
The Republican counters to Harris and Democrats' "weird" branding, he added, also feel "a little rushed" as though the party didn't anticipate Biden bowing out of the race like he did or have a great contingency plan in place for such an outcome.
Karpf said the "weak" Republican response signals that they "haven't found their footing yet."
"Republicans are still stumbling trying to find any sort of coherent response to it," he argued, noting that the back-and-forth, particularly between the presidential candidates, reminds him that Harris "is a prosecutor and Donald Trump doesn't do well with prosecutors." ...
"I don't think we're going to be hearing this for the next 97 days, but I think we're going to be focused on this for a while because they need to come up with a rejoinder," he said.
[Pursuit of Happiness]:
Ryan called to mind a recent clip in which Walz mentioned that Minnesota ranked in the top three for happiest states in the nation. “Isn’t that really the goal here? For some joy? When he mentioned that I was like, dang man, that’s really good. That’s really good, because it gets us out of the political space and into the human being space.”
“Fear and anger is such a low vibration,” Ryan said. “It’s just a negative vibration. And I think what Tim talked about, like the hope of things to come, and the hope of what we’ve actually accomplished, and we can do more. That’s optimistic, that’s a high vibration.”--Tim Ryan, a former Democratic US representative from Ohio
“No one called Trump weird until Tim Walz did,” Heitkamp said. “And it resonated for a reason, because he is weird. I mean, anyone who talks about Hannibal Lecter, that’s not normal behavior. I think that there’s been people who have tried to intellectualize Donald Trump, and Tim just cut through it all and said, ‘This guy’s not normal. This is weird.’”--Heidi Heitkamp, former Senator, ND
“It’s really gotten under the Republicans’ skin, which is, I think, a sign as to how effective it is."--Michael Brodkorb, the former deputy chair of the Minnesota Republican party.
...Biden campaign, which sought to highlight the potential danger of the former president winning back the White House: Trump and his policies pose a "threat to democracy."
Neiheisel said he suspects that the Democratic Party found that mobilizing the electorate on an "abstract concept" didn't amount to the "home run that they hoped it would be" and shifted gears as a result.
“He’s a guy that I think we need to mimic, whether he’s the VP or not. He’s kind of the north star for us,” Ryan said.
