After nearly a decade of being forced to take Trump seriously, Democrats increasingly call BS on the whole charade

Sure, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy — a would-be dictator on day one who has called for terminating the U.S. Constitution so he can hold onto power even after losing a free and fair election. But while draped in the rhetoric of populism, Trump and his MAGA movement are not actually popular; the man himself has never won more votes than the person he ran against, a majority of Americans twice rejecting him and his off-putting cult of personality. That he was ever president is more or less because a few thousand swing voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania thought it would be fun.

President Joe Biden won in 2020 largely by promising to a return to normalcy and baseline competency. In 2024, Democrats are making a similar argument but more forcibly: They’re pointing, laughing and dismissing Trump and his circus as a total freak show to which we can’t return.

  • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

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

    • DannyMac@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      We need David Tenant to go on some social media platform and say to the world, “Doesn’t Ex-President Trump look tired?”

    • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      And they’re not even being real about it.

      “You know there’s something wrong with people when they talk about freedom — freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom to be in your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read,” Walz said. “That stuff is weird. They come across as weird. They seem obsessed with this.”

      And buttigieg: “Republicans, including Fox News anchors, “will take a look at Donald Trump and say he’s perfectly fine, even though he seemed unable to tell the difference between Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi; even though he’s rambling about electrocuting sharks and Hannibal Lecter; even though he’s clearly older and stranger than he was when America got to know him,” Buttigieg said. “They say he’s strong as an ox, leaps tall buildings in a single bound. We don’t have that kind of warped reality on our side.”

      I actually felt a strange sort of relief when I opened this article and saw the headline. But after reading it…that’s it? Why can’t they come out and talk like real-ass people? We get it, you’re professional politicians that are soooo smart. But level with people, for fucks sake.

      Just in the middle of a typical dem speech, even if it’s scripted, go “off script” like:

      […]and…I mean. Maybe this isn’t ‘proper,’ but forget proper for a minute…what the hell is wrong with trump? And Vance, for that matter. Why are we all pretending this is normal? That what they say and do is normal? These aren’t normal people. They’re…weird. Really weird. And frankly—they’re just hateful assholes. We can’t let these freaks have any real power again. We remember last time, right? It was horrifying for a lot of people. Good people were being threatened for who they are. Forget that. We can’t let these weird, sad wannabe fascists take power. Give a wannabe fascist any power, and they’re not “wannabe” anymore. They can just be fascists. And with this corrupt Supreme Court? We would be in deep shit. I get it, we outside of the freak show that is the far right, have our differences. Those to the left of us don’t think we do enough. Those to the right of us think we do too much. But, no matter what, we aren’t those freaks. And right now, that is the most important thing. Keeping wannabe dictators and bonafide weirdos away from the adult’s table. We want to do more for everyone. And keeping trump and Vance and all of the equally strange and hateful Republican grifters and con artists will allow us to do more. So…let’s try to keep this asylum from falling to the inmates.

      Democrats have just decided that “decorum” and appearances are still somehow the way to go. Be fuckin real with people. Don’t give us the form letter politician shit. That is obviously where we’re at as a country. The sooner they learn that the better chance they’ll have.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      I think it’s because for so long they’ve relied on Democrats/people on the left (I say that because it’s not just in the US, it’s become the right-wing tactic all over the place) being serious and arguing in good faith, IE: they’ll just say the wildest shit that’s blatantly untrue, and people on the left tend to bust out the facts and links to long explanations of why that’s false, and they just counter it with more nonsense until their opponents get tired and quit, then they proclaim victory. But if you just go “you’re weird, fuck you” and then refuse to follow up on it they kind of don’t know what to do with it.

      Also, the amount it’s pissing them off means it’s working, everyone keep doing it!

      • cm0002@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Hmm, I wonder if commenting that in that strange Lemmy place c/conservative would have the same effect lmao

    • HWK_290@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Probably for 2 reasons:

      1. quote “all politicians are corrupt and criminal” so this tactic doesn’t land (look at the dem senator from NJ)

      2. few people know convicted felons but they do know “old and weird” people, so they can better draw personal parallels

      • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I think the “weird” attribution has a way of infecting his supporters as well.

        If you support a criminal, that doesn’t necessarily make you a criminal. If you support a corrupt politician, that doesn’t make you a corrupt politician.

        But if you support somebody weird? Well that makes you weird. Trump’s weirdness infects you. It’s the cheese touch of politics.

        • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          For a decade now there has been a certain crowd who considers Trump’s criminality and general disregard for truth to be cool in a “gangster” way. Gangsters are leaders.

          Weirdos, not so much.