The GOP needs to convince voters that Donald Trump and JD Vance are regular guys, and, manifestly, they are not.

It would be strange for Democrats to attack the Republican presidential ticket for being “weird” if it weren’t true. But those men are getting weirder by the day.

Former president Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), is off to a wobbly start. A Harris 2024 campaign email sent on Friday was headlined, “JD Vance Is a Creep (Who Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide).” The statement continued, “JD Vance is weird. Voters know it – Vance is the most unpopular VP pick in decades.”

It was bad enough when footage resurfaced of a 2021 interview in which Vance called Democrats “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” Things got worse last week when Vance offered a non-apology, blaming “people” for “focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said.”

Uh, okay, but that doesn’t help at all. The substance — which Vance said he stands by — is asserting that adults without children do not deserve an equal say  in the nation’s affairs. Another unearthed clip of Vance showed him arguing that parents, when they vote, should be able to cast an extra ballot for each child in their family who is under voting age. He didn’t take that back, either, going only so far as to claim it was a “thought experiment” and not a firm policy position.

  • LouNeko@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    America is raised on celebrities and symbolism. They have the biggest media companies in the world. Idolizing singular individuals, putting them on a pedestal is what they do. It always has to be black or white, good vs evil, like in the movies. They want the good guy to win and get the girl. The art of american politics is to convince more than 50% of people that you’re the good guy and the other candidate is the bad guy.

    That’s why the rest of he world is looking at the US election as entertainment. A circus and freak show in one.

    It has the narrative of a Hollywood movie with real life consequences for people.

  • thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Does anyone else feel like the weird argument falls short. I don’t feel like any of the people I know who like trump mind being called weird. They are some of the weirdest people I know anyway. I think they are used to it

    • Asifall@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Maybe, but nobody cares when you call them facists so I’m not sure what the best move is.

      I do actually think the weirdness argument does probably play to the suburban traditional values types who want to believe they’re the normal ones and everyone else is going crazy.

      • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Exactly. Conservatives hold as their highest values, conformity, compliance, cohesion, authority, sanctity, and tradition. They love adhering to their established norms and standards rather than challenging them. They defer to those whom they view to be in a position of authority. They have lines they do not want crossed, things they hold sacred. To be called “weird” is to be called as existing outside the norm.

        • kmaismith@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          It also works because they are in the minority, it counters the outsized voice brought by all the political bs. (Side note: isn’t it so weird we use an electoral college, all the other democracies have come up with more effective ways to make sure all voices are represented in government)

          • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            We literally created the Electoral College as DEI for slave states. It went hand-in-hand with the infamous “3/5ths Compromise” that allowed slavers to cast ballots in the names of their slaves, so slavers could cast as many votes as they had slaves.

    • Dasus@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      They try not to show that they care.

      But they definitely do. Trump has basically tantrums if people say he has “weirdly small hands”

    • MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Yes, but the gravity of the full extent of theit danger to the country hasn’t been relatable enough for the general public. Now call them weird and suddenly people can relate. Democrats have been trying to talk about the forest, when all they needed to do was plant the seed. “Yeah you know what, what he said is weird, what’s up with that…and now that you mention it, what else have they been up to”

    • na_th_an@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      They are some of the weirdest people, but they don’t realize it. That’s why it’s effective. They think they’re the normal true real America, and everyone else is weird.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      It’s good because it’s purely subjective. The entire problem thus far has been that factional arguments, like “Trump is an authoritarian” and “Trump tried to start an insurrection” end up getting cast as subjective “alternative facts” anyway. The “weird” thing gets straight to the point and kind of short circuits the entire alternative facts thing. It’s also “mild” enough that it doesn immediately elicit a defensive response like calling someone a fascist does.

      This all adds up to creating a crack in the rhetorical wall. “Yeah, Trump is kind of weird isn’t he?” Instead of digging in, it actually lowers the guard a bit, and helps breaks people out of the echo chamber.

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

    Oh is this, this weeks’ talking point? It’s really obvious lately when whoever decides this puts out a new line.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It’s quite easy to explain. Republicans have retreated into their own media bubble, where they can mold their own reality based on “alternative facts”. Their end goal is to project their reality onto the world and give it substance. In this bubble world, Donald Trump is the Alpha Male, and JD Vance is the everyman who speaks for the people.

    Outside this bubble, though, Trump is a narcissist and criminal, and JD Vance is severely out of touch. The only way to penetrate this bubble is to shove the truth through it until it pops. Sometimes, calling things as they are doesn’t get through the bubble, because it immediately puts people on the defensive about their choices. But call them weird? They might agree something a little weird is going on, and that might be just the opening to stick the truth in there.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      One of my favorite things to watch is to see Jordan Klepper or someone from TYT doing their man on the street thing and asking some of the more radical elements some rather basic, but pointed, questions.

      These people are a product of that bubble you reference and you get to see the bubble popped in real time, although I don’t think they are fully aware of what is happening.

    • cabbage@piefed.social
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      I think this is why the Republicans seem weirdly upset by this line of attack. Call them fascists, they don’t bat an eye. It’s too complicated for their base to comprehend anyway, even if the would have had a problem with it. But call them out for being weird, and suddenly their base might stop for a moment and actually think: “Yeah, writing about fucking a sofa in your memoirs is a bit odd, isn’t it?”

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        writing about fucking a sofa in your memoirs is a bit odd, isn’t it?"

        You’re aware this never happened right?

      • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Exactly. For the longest time Democrats have suffered from the “bumper sticker gap.” Liberal and leftist positions are generally more complex, nuanced and tend to require a broader intellectual background than conservative positions. This means they aren’t easily captured by sound bites, and that makes it much easier for conservatives to capture and control media narratives.

        “Republicans are weird” closes that gap, and carries a whole lot of deeper context in the form of the obvious response - “why are Republicans weird?” Suddenly there’s an inroad to engage with deeper policy conversations. And better yet, Republicans can’t engage with the topic at all without having the same conversation - “we aren’t weird because…”

    • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      Trump supporters just have small minds; it’s why they have been conned by trump to begin with. Concepts such as “liberty” and “civil rights” are too complex to explain and champion to them. Instead they understand only primitive things, like “weird” and “ugly”.

  • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    So let’s just imagine they pass a law where people get an extra vote for their kid, which parent gets the vote? Or does each parent get an extra? Because that wouldn’t make sense. Not that any of it did in the first place

    • Flying_Hellfish@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      No no, only the husband will get to cast the vote for his children. No accounting for non-traditional relationships, because JD doesn’t count them.

      • LouNeko@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Man gets the vote for election, woman gets the kid after divorce. Sound only fair to me /s.

  • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    He didn’t take that back, either, going only so far as to claim it was a “thought experiment” and not a firm policy position.

    Ah, the old “I was just running my mouth” defense.

    • Johnmannesca@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Is this just so he can talk more rancid shit about “wellfare queens”? It seems like it would only hurt his stance since he hates the poors.

    • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Look, I run my mouth all the time… but I’m also not running for Vice President. I am a white dude, so there is a non zero chance that the Harris team might reach out to me at some point before the convention, but I doubt it.