In the era of Donald Trump, it’s easy to forget politics used to be boring. World leaders used to act with grace and poise, rather than hurl insulting nicknames at one another while acting like a high school bullies. Trump may have set the new norm, but the Republican demagogue’s supporters don’t like the rules of the game now that Joe Biden has left the race.
The right can’t seem to find an appropriate attack for Kamala Harris. Is she a deep state plant, or a rookie with no idea how to lead a country? Did she sleep her way to the top, or is she a DEI hire? While MAGA chases its tail looking for the perfect zinger, the Left has embraced the MAGA ways and leaned into a truly diabolical blanket insult for the movement. And the Right’s reaction to the name calling couldn’t be more weird.
Why Is Kamala Harris calling Donald Trump “weird?”
Donald Trump has had some spectacularly bad nicknames for his opponents. “Lyin’,” “Leakin’,” “Crazy,”“Sleepy,” “Wacky,” “Crooked,” and “Little” have emerged as his favorite descriptors – like some rejected version of the seven dwarves. Trump has been slinging mud for nearly a decade while his supporters basked in the mean girl glow.
Trump’s penchant for nicknames is so extreme, there is even a Wikipedia page solely dedicated to his put downs. So you would think that the Right would be more than comfortable getting down and dirty with the mockery.
But as soon as the Left began calling the so called “basket of deplorables” weird, things got messy. It all started with Minnesota governor Tim Walz, a former teacher who has ample experience with school yard bullies and one of the potential vice presidential candidates. During an interview, Walz let his opinions of Lyin’ Trump be known. While referring to the damage Trump has inflicted – and will continue to inflict – on women’s rights, Walz said he felt the rhetoric “gives him way too much power.”
Imploring voters to actually “listen to the guy,” he cited some of Trump’s more outlandish claims from the last few weeks. The list included Trump’s admiration for Hannibal Lecter, his ongoing obsession with sharks, the potential for batteries to cause electrocution deaths, and “Whatever crazy thing pops into his mind.”
Trump says and does outlandish things all the time, but as Walz put it, “You never see this guy laugh, you never see him do ‘normal things.’” He continued saying it was, “Very weird” that after more than 6 years in the public eye, Trump had never laughed. And if he did, “it’s at someone and not with someone. That is weird behavior.”
The innocuous observation resonated with thousands of Americans who have spent years wondering how things got so bizarre in their country. “Weird” was echoed across the internet, and before long the Right was furious with the “unjust and childish” name calling. It’s amazing how quickly the MAGA crowd developed empathy when it was their team being belittled. The Right has been engaging in name-calling and other juvenile tactics since Trump started his campaign in earnest back in 2016.
Trump supporters hit the internet in droves to argue for “decency.” Vivek Ramaswamy took to X to complain about “dumb and juvenile” Dems. He was met with thousands of replies directing the weird sentiment his way. And the more the Right unites to fight the simple word, the more the Left embraces it.
Harris herself leaned into the comment at a campaign fundraiser saying, “You may have noticed, Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record, and some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it’s just plain weird.”
Sometimes, when speaking to your oppressor, you have to speak in a language they understand. As it turns out, all Dems needed to do was channel a 12-year-old bully for conservatives to get the message. We are with Walz, Harris, and the entire Dem camp on this one, let’s, “ratchet down some of the scariness and just name it what it is.” Just plain weird.