SPEAK UP: "Weird"

Is the new label du jour wise? And to whom, exactly, should it be addressed?

Energized by the Kamala Harris campaign, Democrats have taken the fight to MAGA Republicans, and, led by Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential short-list favorite Tim Walz, they’ve taken up the mantra that the positions taken by Republican leaders are just…weird.

In other words, they might be fascists, but they aren’t evil supervillains. What they are is ridiculous, out of step, creepy — yes, weird.

The label has a lot going for it. How else to describe the folks who are obsessed with birth rates and whether or not women have children? Who want to erase reproductive freedoms and outlaw contraception? Who think library books and drag queen story hours threaten the future of America? Who want to keep tabs on women’s ovulation and restrict pregnant people from crossing state lines? Who promise radical fundamentalist followers that they’ll fix things so they won’t have to vote anymore? 

But the mantra also has its critics, and it got us thinking: Could “weird” become the new “deplorable” — or is it a fundamentally different critique that can resist that kind of co-optation? 

We suspect it’s the latter, though it’ll take some care to keep it on track (and just hear us out here).