On the "weird" debate. Conservatives have responded to liberal...
Richard Hanania@RichardHanania
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Jul 30, 2024
1
On the "weird" debate.
Conservatives have responded to liberal accusations of "weirdness" by pointing to strange looking trans activists, pronouns, etc. I think that this misses the core reason as to why Republicans are seen as weird.
It's not about positions on culture war issues. Each side has certain views on reproduction, trans, race, etc that are outside the mainstream and deranged people within their coalition.
The key difference is that Democrats come across as normal people who take one side in the culture war. Republicans are simply driven by the culture war and nothing else.
Compare say Gretchen Whitmer to Ron DeSantis. In 2018, Whitmer ran on the slogan "Fix the Damn Roads." She has left wing views on trans issues, etc., obviously, but her presentation is that of a normal politician first and foremost. She talks about things like building infrastructure and helping our teachers or whatever. She's considered a future presidential contender.
In contrast, DeSantis thought the only way to challenge Trump was to obsess about woke, woke, woke. Many of his initiatives like not teaching third graders about gender theory or banning DEI are popular. But if you meet someone and all they want to talk about is race or gender issues, it strikes people as off.
This is even setting aside the Trump cult, which is the center of the Republican Party. The only way to challenge Trump was for DeSantis to obsess over identity issues and say he's not committed enough to fighting on them. As it turned out, Republican voters didn't respond because it's not even about social issues like woke fundamentally, it's about being entertained, and no one can match Trump by that standard.
What's happened to the state parties in the Midwest is emblematic of these differences. Michigan and Pennsylvania are swing states in presidential elections. At the state level, beginning in 2018, Democrats have been able to run normal politicians with broad appeal. Republicans have run freakshow candidates. In 2022, Josh Shapiro beat Doug Mastriano, and Whitmer beat Tudor Dixon. The Michigan GOP was taken over by a mentally unstable woman with extremist abortion views who was removed from her office but then refused to leave. This story is representative of what has happened to state Republican parties (see the tweet thread below on what has recently happened in different states).
There are normal Republican politicians, and weird Democrats. But normal Republicans don't have a chance in national politics, because of the fundamental derangement of the right wing media and influencer class. Democrats do a much better job of keeping their weirdos on the fringes and elevating people who are from the most normal part of their coalition. That's how they ended up with Biden in 2016, and why Kamala has a strong bench of generic white guys to choose from as VP. Mark Kelly is in the running because he ran against Blake Masters, and Shapiro, to remind you, only had to beat Doug Mastriano. There's no reason that the governor of Pennsylvania or the senator from Arizona can't be a white male Republican instead of a Democrat. It didn't work out that way because on the conservative side the crazies are in charge, seeking to elevate whoever will be most "based" by saying the meanest things about childless women or immigrants or adopting the latest insane conspiracy theory making the rounds on right-wing media.
The world is not your X timeline. Normal people judge movements and parties by their most prominent representatives. And by that standard, it is obviously Republicans who are the weird ones.
Conservatives have responded to liberal accusations of "weirdness" by pointing to strange looking trans activists, pronouns, etc. I think that this misses the core reason as to why Republicans are seen as weird.
It's not about positions on culture war issues. Each side has certain views on reproduction, trans, race, etc that are outside the mainstream and deranged people within their coalition.
The key difference is that Democrats come across as normal people who take one side in the culture war. Republicans are simply driven by the culture war and nothing else.
Compare say Gretchen Whitmer to Ron DeSantis. In 2018, Whitmer ran on the slogan "Fix the Damn Roads." She has left wing views on trans issues, etc., obviously, but her presentation is that of a normal politician first and foremost. She talks about things like building infrastructure and helping our teachers or whatever. She's considered a future presidential contender.
In contrast, DeSantis thought the only way to challenge Trump was to obsess about woke, woke, woke. Many of his initiatives like not teaching third graders about gender theory or banning DEI are popular. But if you meet someone and all they want to talk about is race or gender issues, it strikes people as off.
This is even setting aside the Trump cult, which is the center of the Republican Party. The only way to challenge Trump was for DeSantis to obsess over identity issues and say he's not committed enough to fighting on them. As it turned out, Republican voters didn't respond because it's not even about social issues like woke fundamentally, it's about being entertained, and no one can match Trump by that standard.
What's happened to the state parties in the Midwest is emblematic of these differences. Michigan and Pennsylvania are swing states in presidential elections. At the state level, beginning in 2018, Democrats have been able to run normal politicians with broad appeal. Republicans have run freakshow candidates. In 2022, Josh Shapiro beat Doug Mastriano, and Whitmer beat Tudor Dixon. The Michigan GOP was taken over by a mentally unstable woman with extremist abortion views who was removed from her office but then refused to leave. This story is representative of what has happened to state Republican parties (see the tweet thread below on what has recently happened in different states).
There are normal Republican politicians, and weird Democrats. But normal Republicans don't have a chance in national politics, because of the fundamental derangement of the right wing media and influencer class. Democrats do a much better job of keeping their weirdos on the fringes and elevating people who are from the most normal part of their coalition. That's how they ended up with Biden in 2016, and why Kamala has a strong bench of generic white guys to choose from as VP. Mark Kelly is in the running because he ran against Blake Masters, and Shapiro, to remind you, only had to beat Doug Mastriano. There's no reason that the governor of Pennsylvania or the senator from Arizona can't be a white male Republican instead of a Democrat. It didn't work out that way because on the conservative side the crazies are in charge, seeking to elevate whoever will be most "based" by saying the meanest things about childless women or immigrants or adopting the latest insane conspiracy theory making the rounds on right-wing media.
The world is not your X timeline. Normal people judge movements and parties by their most prominent representatives. And by that standard, it is obviously Republicans who are the weird ones.
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Thread on the horror show that is Republican state parties in the Trump era. At the more local level, Republicans are showing themselves to be the party of Low Human Capital and personal instability.
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The Super Bowl is pretty much the high church of America normalcy. It was Fox News, not CNN, that played to its audience by saying it was part of a Deep State conspiracy. richardhanania.com/p/taylor-swift…