Why the “Weird” Charge Against Republicans Works

Why the “Weird” Charge Against Republicans WorksIt gets at the crisis in masculinity that the GOP has exploited expertly—until now.

The post Why the “Weird” Charge Against Republicans Works appeared first on Washington Monthly.

The dramatic transition from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee has given Democrats energy and confidence and shaken up the messaging environment. Suddenly, Trump and his allies look old, tired, and on their back foot, while Democrats promise a bold new vision.

It has also given Democrats a fascinatingly effective new attack on MAGA conservatives. Everywhere you look, Democrats are using “weird” to describe MAGA policies and personalities. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz introduced the meme with the plain-spoken folksiness that has made him a Democratic superstar and top-tier Vice-Presidential contender. Ever since then, Democrats have latched onto the attack with the gusto of a fantasy hero who just discovered a secret superweapon.

Conservatives are off balance and at pains to respond. Republican Vice-Presidential Nominee J. D. Vance has become a national punchline for his strange comments about “cat ladies” and childless couples, even ending up in a nasty exchange with the beloved actress Jennifer Aniston. Trump himself has only been able to sputter and get caught uncharacteristically off-guard, managing only an “I know you are, but what am I?” reply, redolent of playground vulnerability.

Many pundits offer answers as to why “weird” works. Some suggest that it’s a way for Democrats to respond sharply to Republicans’ insults and emotion-laden attacks. Others correctly note that the MAGA movement revels in accusations of being scary and without empathy and that mockery is the best way to frustrate a bully while denying them the aura of power. Some say that “weird” is a tamer insult than “fascist” or “threat to democracy,” which might appeal more to voters turned off by overheated rhetoric. And still, others note that while marginalized communities have often been portrayed as outside the norms of American society, there is something that has always been fundamentally awkward, if not bizarre, about far-right movements—and that labeling as such is a way to reclaim normalcy and power for the quiet majority in America that has won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections.

All of these perspectives have merit, as well as the simple fact that Trump has always been a deeply strange person—a whiny, miserly germaphobe—who has gotten away with presenting himself as an avatar of the common man.

But these answers miss the word’s impact on Trump’s growing base of disaffected men of all races and ethnicities. Why does the “weird” charge work well with them? I would argue that it’s an ingenious way of reframing masculinity and nudging alienated right-leaning men back to the center.

The crisis of male identity has been responsible for much of the growth of the MAGA movement. Men—and white men in particular—have spent millennia at the pinnacle of economic and social power in Western society. Women’s rights advances from suffrage to the sexual revolution to the Me Too movement have profoundly readjusted the power balance between the sexes. At a time when men are falling behind in most vital indicia—educational attainment, mental health, workforce participation, and so on—some have interpreted attempts to balance the scales as an act of punching down at them. Many men of lesser moral fiber have become reactionaries to re-establish their unearned prior advantages rather than adjust and adapt to real gender equality.

Still, there is a wide swath of men who have not become hardcore reactionaries but have found difficulty finding a positive and affirmative version of masculinity in progressive mainstream culture, especially as some expectations of men change while others remain. It can be hard to know the line between confident and overbearing when dating or trying to find a date; men are supposed to show emotional vulnerability, but not so much that they are perceived as weak.

Men are supposed to uplift others and be supportive of traditionally marginalized people, but also not be boring pushovers with dull personalities. Women have, of course, long endured their version of impossible sexist social dilemmas, but men are trapped in similar difficulties for the first time. For many, it has become easier to lean into more comforting models of toxic masculinity than to navigate more challenging complexities of good behavior. Not surprisingly, more significant numbers of men of all races have become a core part of Trump’s base.

And yet, many of these men still want to fit into polite, cosmopolitan society. They want to be thought of well by empowered women with liberal instincts. Above all, they don’t want to be that weird guy.

Everyone knows that weird guy. The incel kid who worships manosphere figures like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson. The pickup artist who tries—usually unsuccessfully—to “neg” women into one-night stands. The creepy guy muttering homophobic slurs and obsessed with trans people. The anti-Semite cracking “jokes” about the Holocaust while posting online memes about “founding stock” and interracial marriage. The Fox News-addicted uncle who Walz alluded to, ruining every Thanksgiving with the latest rightwing conspiracy theory. The strangely uptight acquaintance who quotes Ayn Rand. The Bible-obsessed Puritan railing about LGBTQ books in school libraries who has an unsettling interest in children and sexuality.

Most normal men know those guys. Those lost reactionaries are weird. But many made common cause with outlier oddballs in the absence of progressive politics that actively affirms the normalcy of respectful, inclusive equality.

Trumpism, for its part, has become the domain of that guy. The modern conservative movement is home to extremists who want to ban IVF and contraception, cheer “Mass Deportation Now,” as the signs at the Republican convention said, force LGBTQ citizens back into the closet, ally themselves with Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Viktor Orban’s Hungary, install a religious dictatorship, and generally make life a living nightmare for anyone who isn’t a traditionalist Christian conservative. No wonder some of the Barstool Sports guys are ripe for the Democratic message about the Republicans being weird. Most men aren’t so obsessed with controlling every aspect of women’s lives that they want to ban pornography or recreational sex.

By calling Trump and his ardent followers “weird” (and, perhaps, by hosting cheeky events like “White Dudes for Harris”), Democrats are signaling to millions of men that they have a home in the party. Most importantly, it reminds these men that whatever their personal struggles and political leanings, they shouldn’t empower and make common cause with that guy.

It’s a compelling message, and conservative commentators know it. Republicans don’t have a good answer because it would require distancing themselves from the creepy, controlling—and, yes, weird– men who are their coalition’s most fervent activists. Walz understands that, and now Trump and Vance do, too.

The post Why the “Weird” Charge Against Republicans Works appeared first on Washington Monthly.