RFK Jr. joined forces with Trump.
The Trump campaign just made it easier for Harris. Trump doubled down on weirdness.
Harris is trying to solidify her brand as the normal, get-things-done, moderate candidate.
Trump is doubling down on manic, conspiracy, over-the-top high drama, i.e. weird.
RFK Jr. is in the midst of getting known. What Americans know about him is that he is the scion of a Democratic legacy, but that he isn't a Democrat anymore.
We know his family members publicly condemn him, saying that he has become consumed by conspiracy theories. We know he has a reputation as a strong environmentalist. We know he had been a drug addict. We know he has some sort of neurological problem that gives him a croaky voice. We know he is strongly anti-vaccine and that he condemns the CDC, Dr. Fauci, drug companies, and the medical establishment. We learned from him that he had a worm -- yeah, a worm -- that ate part of his brain, then died, but that RFK Jr. himself survived, missing that part of his brain.
And we just learned that he picked up a dead bear cub from a road, planned to cook and eat it. But he didn't have time, so he deposited it in Central Park in Manhattan and put a bicycle on it so that it would appear to have been hit by the bicycle. When it when it was discovered, it became a big New York news story.
A campaign does not need to exaggerate to make RFK Jr. sound weird.
Readers of this blog know that I think that on the margin, and generally running in background below the level of rational consciousness, people choose their president based on gut feelings. They are choosing between two parties and their archetype leaders. It is a Hollywood casting decision: which person looks and feels right for the role of president. The campaigns create caricatures of the candidates to simplify and clarify the choice. It is a war of brands.
A brand's strength contains its weakness. Trump is bigger than life. He speaks in absolutes and superlatives. He breaks conventions of decorum and decency. Trump's behavior makes him fascinating and beloved by many. His being outside the norm is central to his attraction. It makes him ghastly and weird to others, probably a majority of America's voters.
Harris is busy walking away from the woke-Bernie-Sanders-look-alike brand she presented back in 2019 when she was in the Democratic scrum seeking the presidential nomination. The political center for the country moved, and she moved with it. Her being willing to switch is now part of her brand. She just demonstrated that she isn't stuck with ideological purity, even if the left wishes that for her. She wants what the political center wants. Now she wants to be Candidate Normal.
Candidate Normal is the alternative to Weird Trump, the Lear raving in the night.
RFK Jr. did Harris' work for her. He solidified the weirdness contained in the Trump brand. Trump's narcissism, criminal history, sex and defamation judgements, felony convictions, January 6 behavior, and cranky-old-man-tweeting-insults brand just added a side dish of brain worm and eating bear road kill. Weirdness squared.
Voters have a choice. Harris is trying to be normal. Trump is trying to extend the era of high-drama weirdness another four years. Each of them think they are in sync with what the public wants.
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18 comments:
Harris is as left-wing as ever. She’s simply striking an anodyne pose for election season purposes.
As for RFK, Jr., it’s hard to imagine many of his supporters—his wife included—voting Trump at his urging.
Lear’s madness purged and then cured him. Trump remains mired in the peevish entitlement mode.
Maybe Trump will repurpose “weird” as in the doom casting sisters from Macbeth. He’s a big Bard fan.
“Readers of this blog know that I think…people choose their president based on gut feelings.”
It’s no caricature to point out that Trump is a misogynistic, racist criminal who has been known to fondle and smooch the American flag but has no interest in the republic for which it stands other than what it can do for him. Yet nearly half the electorate idolize him. Gut feelings are fine but to keep them in perspective, people need to get their head out of their ass.
Trump’s in transition from Knave to Fool.
RFK Jr. for court jester!
I’m glad Democrats are finally getting back at Trump, calling him “weird,” ridiculing his obsession with crowd size, joking about falling asleep at his trial and waking up with 34 felony convictions. He hates being laughed at and it’s obviously making him even more unhinged, so keep it up. But in addition to the mockery, let’s not forget Trump’s treachery. Besides being old and deranged, he really did try to illegally overturn the last election and Republicans are making noises about doing it again.
RFK Jr. fits right in with Trump’s buffoonery, but what makes Trump dangerous is his power to bring out the worst in people. Hopefully enough citizens still care about our Republic and its founding principles not to turn it over to such a traitor. Even some Republicans agree! I couldn’t help applauding during Adam Kinzinger’s appeal for patriotism from Republicans at the DNC. We need more leaders like him, who put country before party and personal power.
Harris is a weathervane. In 2020 she went full woke, because that’s what her party wanted. Now she’s centrist, because that’s what the D’s currently want.
If she’s elected, is the centrist or the woke ideologue going to fall out of that coconut tree?
Just can't quit using "Woke" as a curse word, can you, despite the numerous times Dictionary definitions have been provided.
She's woke? It figures. She's probably uppity too.
I don’t think it matters if she is woke or centrist, as she is sane. She will govern mostly in the middle because that’s what will pass. I expect her to be a fantastic president who will get re-elected in 4 years. I don’t get M.T. Being so negative about her. She is clearly intelligent, personable, and yes, more attractive than DT. I may have irrational exuberance, but I think a republican massacre is going to happen. Independents and sane republicans will make that happen. Imagine Texas and Florida going blue along with their senate candidates. It’s a reach, but I think young people and women are going to make the difference.
I am using “woke” as an accurate description of a particular left-wing ideology, based on common usage. I don’t particularly care what some dictionary says.
If I was sure KH was going to be centrist, I wouldn’t be so negative. I am not sure about that. I honestly just don’t know.
I never said, or even thought “uppity”. That’s entirely your projection, which you courageously deploy from behind the shield of anonymity.
How quickly some forget; Harris in 2017:
https://youtu.be/53A6wcgbxEM?si=XgfRJR3jZ6DrML9L
For the last two decades or so, we all leave a digital footprint. Candidates and their staffers need to be well aware of that digital footprint.
I'm sure we all are waiting for Presidential candidate Harris to "meet the press" and provide the voters with an update as to her beliefs that we should be paying attention to now, and which ones should be ignored.
And of course, the same applies to Trump.
The dark horse recently has been the introduction of Walz and Vance. Their digital footprint is a bit less, but very important, too.
The saving grace is that too many of the voters have a short memory. They will all be blasted with updated stories that paint a prettier picture for the candidates.
For sure the Harris on then
Anybody who imagines that race and gender won’t be a major factor in this election is living in fantasyland. There are people who accuse Kamala Harris of being “woke,” as if there were something wrong with caring about social justice. There are people who call her “the D.E.I. candidate,” as if no person of color could possibly be as qualified as their lunatic-in-chief. Trump, in his desperation, has actually stoked another “birther” conspiracy theory about her.
If our presidential candidates were judged by the content of their character, Harris would win in a landslide. Instead, it’s going to be close, and we all know why.
MEI is better for us than DEI.
Merit, Education, Intelligence.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion alone are no guarantee that the job that needs to be done, will be done.
Everyone deserves a chance at doing the job, but neither MEI nor DEI will assure that the job will be well done.
Yes, everyone deserves a chance. They all just need to prove themselves after getting that job.
Pay for performance, not the acronym they embrace .
There's no inherent conflict between MEI and DEI, and they both beat MAGA:
Malice, Abuse, Greed, Anger
Don Old had the job and American voters told him YOU'RE FIRED!
Evidently Mike was unaware as to who first came up with MAGA, "Make America Great Again...
Bill Clinton.
Way back when Bill Clinton wanted to:
Make America Great Again 😉
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4600782/user-clip-bill-clinton-make-america-great-again
Actually, "Let's make America great again" was first used by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 presidential campaign, which makes the slogan no less absurd coming from the mouth of a psychopath.
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