Since this piece is about “weird,” I must start with my most favorite weird story. It’s not about Republican weirdness but about Robert Kennedy Jr, who is running for president as an Independent. We will get to the Republican weirdness after.
RFK Jr., who is running for president as an independent candidate, in an interview with Roseanne Barr, RFK described a time when he deposited a baby bear in Central Park. As if that wasn’t bizarre enough, in an attempt to create a plausible reason for the bear’s presence, he left an old bicycle next to it to make it seem like the bear was hit by the bike. With that kind of problem solving I think he shouldn’t be allowed to operate a cash register in a bike shop. Here’s a link to the story. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/04/us/politics/robert-f-kennedy-jr-bear-central-park.html
The word ‘weird’ is everywhere. Maybe Kamala Harris’s pick for V.P., Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, was cemented when he called out Republicans as weird? Let’s face it, Tim Walz knows weird when he sees it. After all, Walz is the anti-weird. He is the neighbor who will come over to your house and help you fix your car. You can call him “Coach” for his stint as a high school football coach; you can call him “Sarge” for his 24 year commitment to the National Guard; you can call him “Teach” for his years as a teacher. You can call him America’s “Uncle,” something he shares with President Biden. One thing you can’t call him is “weird.”
The right wing echo chamber seems lost in their attempt to deal with being called out as weird. It’s quite comical. Suddenly, It’s not nice to name-call. It’s okay to call Kamala Harris “dumb,” “a phony,” a D.E.I. candidate, not to mention all the racist and misogynistic comments. So far the best the Republicans can come up with is that the Harris campaign is just so weird for using the word weird.
For the record, I have some issues with the word weird. When someone is thought of as weird, they are treated differently. It can be painful to be labeled as weird. You can often be the subject of ridicule, bullying and abuse. It isolates people and leads to loneliness and alienation. It is a too common occurrence and serious flaw of humans to be alienated by difference; otherizing people allows one group to have power over the other. The truth is that some of the great humans in all fields were probably considered weird. I could go on and on about concerns about “weird,” but I’ll suspend them so I can talk about why it’s such an effective label for The Don, The Vance, and his Republican cronies.
So what constitutes weird? Weird is the child (sadly) that nobody wants to play with at recess. Weird is shaking your head in disbelief that someone could say something so ridiculous. Weird is “You really believe that shit?” Weird is “You people are out of touch with reality.” Weird is “He is just so yucky.” Weird is “I get the creeps around him.” Weird is “Do you want your child around this person?”
What the Democrats have done is to respond to all the racist and misogynist attacks (which are not held by the majority of Americans) with the equivalent of “You think that? Well, you are so out of touch, because a majority of Americans don’t.” Rather than respond directly to the racism and misogyny the Republicans spread, they are letting the American people know that they should be alienated by what Republicans say. It’s the perfect tactic as Republicans want to fight and bring you down into the gutter with them. In particular, The Don is lost when you don’t take the bait. The Don hates being called weird because, in his mind, he is the most together, normal person he ever met. (Just like is the “least racist” person in the world.) The idea that people could look at him as the kid in the class no one wants to play with infuriates him. The fact is, to anyone paying attention, you don’t need to convince people he is racist or devalues women: it’s clear as day. The Harris campaign has decided to take the stance that there is nothing new here; it’s just another weird day when the other side alienates people (because they are weird.)
At his recent news conference, The Don was asked whether given the riot on Jan. 6, he felt that there had been a peaceful transfer of power. The Don went weird and veered off into lala land. Rather than address the question, he stated that his speech that day drew more people than Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech (which drew 250,000,) Let’s face it: the way he answered the question was weird and that he dove right into his obsession with crowd size was also weird.
It’s interesting that he used MLK as his comparison. If you recall, he insisted that his inauguration crowd was bigger than Obama’s, despite the obvious facts. Now he is lying about Kamala’s crowds, insisting his were bigger or that hers were AI simulations! What’s the connection here? Maybe it’s a stretch, but all three are Black. As a White Supremacist, the idea that Black people can be more popular than him is unacceptable. It drives him crazy.
Which brings me to another really weird thing: the man who claims he has been the best president for “Black people since Lincoln” went to a conference for Black journalists with the belief it would be a friendly chat, the Black version of a Fox News interview. Questions like:
Can you please tell our audience what products you use to keep your hair in place, as our community is so impressed?
How much do your very cool sneakers cost? And can you tell us the name of the website so we can send people where to purchase them.
It’s pretty cool how you used your felony conviction to connect to the black community. Can you tell us your thought process on that? It was absolute genius.
When the interviewer asked him some real questions about some of his prior statements about Blacks and why they should vote for him, he was stunned and went on the attack. Isn’t it so weird that he thought it was going to be a kumbaya time with his Black sisters and brothers?
The Don’s discomfort and anger were palpable; he lashed out at the questioner and claimed the event was run by incompetents for starting late. It turns out that the event started late because he wouldn’t go on stage until they agreed not to fact-check him in real time. That’s pretty weird. It’s basically saying I am going to lie and I don’t want anyone questioning me about my lies.
And then The Don decided to get to what he was really there for when he said “I didn’t know she (Kamala Harris) was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black. Now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
At the time it was shocking, but it was just another racist ploy to de-legitimize her like he did with Obama by claiming he wasn’t born in this country. What’s weird about it is that imagined questioning the authenticity of her Blackness would get him Black votes; Black people would be aghast and offended by her claim that she was Black when she was really Indian.
Kamala Harris’s response to it all was we’ve heard this stuff before-same old same old. Rather than call out the obvious racism she implied. Really? What a weird thing to say. The lack of response probably drove him crazy. It would be fun to see her say something like: What’s the obsession with Black people? Maybe deep down he is envious of us? It’s just so weird that he can’t stop talking about us. I don’t know but maybe he feels left out. We would welcome him into our arms if he could just stop being so weird. All people are invited into our happy warrior tent.
The Grand Offal Party 