President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

From the fields of South Dakota to ...

 

Weird.

Weird.

 

I turn 40 next week. I’m from Ohio. We had a beautiful plaid couch with a matching Ottoman I was fond of as a teenager.

I’d like to unveil my real identity on here.

 

Fucking couch fucker

 

Lake wins her primary

 

It was rigged.

 

Yeah, but that's not the story.

She's running against the sheriff on Pinal County, Mark Lamb. He's a media whore so he has a bit of visibility, but he serves an area between Phoenix and Tucson with not much in it. He had no money for this campaign and got absolutely no help from the party, which very much wanted a coronation for Lake. Lamb ran virtually no campaign -- we had joked on the air that we hoped we would get a "proof of life" video to see if he was still running.

As I type this, she's winning 53% to 41%.

My political reporter buddy put the over-under at 60% and I said over, easily. At 53%, this is a seriously rough night for Lake.

 

Hopefully lying asshole Lake has many more rough nights ahead. She’s disgusting.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2024/07/30/republicans-weird/

I think this excerpt explains why "weird" is working:

"A central pillar of Trump’s campaign is the idea that liberals are perverted misfits who want to tear down American values. Married men and women who have children are normal, but couples without children, or parents without partners, or children with two dads, or women who have two children but also once had an abortion — those people are morally deficient. All of this is old-school puritanism, but Trump brought it all into a pep rally atmosphere. Not only was it morally correct to pass judgment, but it was also festive and fun. They were strong; libs were weak. They were right; libs were wrong. They were with the prom king, who was telling them they were awesome, and the libs were outcasts in the library, probably being read to by a drag queen.

"'Weird' intrudes on that narrative. It doesn’t entirely upend it, but it does plant a seed of doubt. What if, instead of being admired or feared, they are instead being laughed at? What if, instead of edgelords, they are actually just the kids in the corner eating glue off their hands?

"'They called us weird so I’ll call them weirder,' said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), according to an X post — but 'weird' is an insult that doesn’t work both ways. Gay kids, trans kids, cat ladies and horse boys have already spent an entire lifetime being told they were weird, and they have learned to wear it as a badge of honor if they need to. But when your whole political movement is based on a return to some 'Pleasantville' vision of American normalcy, 'weird' actually hurts. It’s not great to wonder whether, in the eyes of your fellow citizens, you’re just kind of ... lame."

As someone who can be described as "weird" myself, I get this. I'm neurodivergent and nerdy and have a set of interests some would describe as bizarre; I know I don't fit into a box and got picked on for much of my childhood. Over the years, I learned to take "weird" and use it to describe myself so others couldn't lob it in my direction as a pejorative.

I don't think a collection of reactionaries from Trump on down are capable of this sort of self-awareness. They are, in many ways, the progeny of people like Anita Bryant -- who, upon winning a victory against gay rights in Miami-Dade County in 1977, referred to her side as "the normal majority." They believe they are the modern-day "normal majority" in what they deem a society run amok.

Being considered "weird" hurts them. And frankly, I want it to go on hurting them. (I probably sound like Khan in "Star Trek II.")

 

Considering how much he likes it, wouldn't a true punishment be staying in bed?

 

I'd like to subscribe to your podcast. I'm serious!