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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    3 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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      3 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?”

    • HWK_290@lemmy.world
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      3 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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        3 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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          3 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.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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      3 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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        3 months ago

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

    • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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      3 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.

    • Lianodel@ttrpg.network
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      3 months ago

      For sure, and it is absolutely true.

      I just like “weird” because it only works one way. For people who value individuality and diversity, it doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation. For people who value conformity, it’s a devastating insult. Apparently Ben Shapiro went on Megyn Kelly’s show to cry about it, which is great.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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?

  • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    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.

  • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

  • shish_mish@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      There’s two sides to that.

      Some of them are like tucker Carlson or Boris Johnson. They look ridiculous on purpose so that’s what people talk about instead of the horrendous shit they’re advocating for.

      So by all means laugh at them, it hurts their follower count. But don’t outright dismiss them.

      They might be stupid and weird that doesn’t make them less dangerous

        • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          Because fundamentally right wingers a build their identity around the idea that they are normal.

          Progressives? We’re generally pretty OK with being weird. Being different. Being unusual. But right wingers are pathologically obsessed with the idea of being normal. The idea of being weird scares then more than anything else.

    • xenoclast@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      They absolutely baller move right now would be to STOP saying it.

      Let it sit there and don’t say it again. Move on to something else for a bit.

      Let them get all frothed about it but never refer to it again.

      Otherwise they’re going to regroup and have a response… stopping now means they waste their energy

  • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      Get out of my brain.

      I was literally just wondering why it’s so effective and I think it’s this.

      Most liberal “insults” are draped in facts and figures, to the point that Republicans just close their ears and say AlTeRnAtIvE fAcTs.

      I think the simplicity, and it’s fact-less insult cuts through their reasoning brains (which there wasn’t much of) and hits them in the emotional centers.

      I mean…it took Democrats 6 years to figure this out?

      Better late than never but happy we’re finally hitting below the belt.

    • Zak@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      That might be part of it, but the Republicans tried a similar attack against Biden and it mostly didn’t land. It only works when it’s true in the sense that the average person genuinely finds the position or behavior in question disturbing.

  • BleatingZombie@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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!

    • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Did you read the article? It explains this.

      By taking a buffoon seriously, you help legitimize their buffoonery. Eventually, somebody has to say “Look, this is ridiculous! The emperor wears no clothes!”

      We don’t need to stoop to their level

      It depends. When Republicans steal elections, Democrats shouldn’t stoop to stealing elections, too.

      When somebody’s slinging mud at you, though, it’s appropriate to sling mud back. You can’t just stand there and say “My, what an astonishing lack of decorum!” as the mud slides off your face and onto your shirt. That was Biden’s way, and it wasn’t working. It made him look like a wimp.

    • cybersandwich@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s messaging. The GOP has been so much better than the Dems at messaging. “Build the wall” , “lock her up”, etc is all easy to understand and convey.

      I honestly couldn’t tell you what Biden’s was?

      It’s about time the Dems started hitting back with stuff like “old and strange”. Taking the high road where it matters but getting in your hits when you can is exactly what the Dems need to be doing.

  • TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    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.

  • Media Bias Fact Checker@lemmy.worldB
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    3 months ago
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