A Lesson For Democrats -- Don't Be Weird

David Harsanyi on Nov 15, 2024

A lot of you people sound nuts.

It is unsurprising that a Donald Trump campaign ad featuring the tagline "Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you" was effective in the 2024 presidential campaign. Indeed, a pro-Kamala Harris PAC says the spot, which featured a clip of Harris endorsing state-funded sex-change operations for prisoners, "shifted the race 2.7 percentage points in Mr. Trump's favor after viewers watched it."

Now, one suspects most normies aren't only turned off by "they/them" because it's grammatically mystifying or scientifically dubious. For many, "they/them" represents the 14,000 confused children who have been mutilated by "gender-affirming care." For others, "they/them" represents thousands of girls and women who are forced to compete with boys and men on the field.

For most, though, "they/them" is probably just a microcosm of all the weird cultural fads the Left has been trying to normalize and force-feed society. Normies tend to reject social science quackery.

Americans are generally happy to make accommodations for alternative lifestyles. That doesn't make this stuff less bizarre or extreme. And the speed at which the Left has demanded everyone treat these unhinged notions as the norm is mind-blowing.

The other day, President-elect Donald Trump announced the incoming administration would "ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the U.S. government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth." Twenty years ago, maybe even 10, most people wouldn't have the slightest clue what he was talking about. Today, a CNN talking head will melt down on national TV when Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) points out that men and women are physically different -- an incontrovertible fact that everyone on Earth agreed on until about five minutes ago.

When Trump tapped Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) to be his running mate, Democrats engaged in a concerted effort to portray the Ohio senator as some kind of oddball. Tell me, what's weirder: making a joke about cat ladies on a podcast or supporting laws that put tampons in the boy's bathrooms at schools? Because the latter was the work of flannel-shirt-wearing Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), who had once signed a bill empowering courts to strip parents who refused to give "gender-affirming health care" of custody.

Of course, there are probably bigger factors to explain why Democrats lost in 2024. The economy is usually the most pressing issue for voters, and Democrats blew a slam-dunk recovery by cramming through a massive crony spending bill just as inflation was rising. That was just self-destructive behavior. Trying to convince us that dropping trillions into the economy would ease inflation was also weird.

But that doesn't mean cultural forces aren't nudging virtually every demographic and ethnic group away from Democrats. One of the reasons is that you people sound nuts.

Your lingo is also disconcertingly weird. "Latinx" is weird. Earnestly using phrases such as "birthing person" or "pregnant people" is so dumb. Marching around in a pussyhat makes you look like an unhinged hysteric. And no one believes you think "The Handmaid's Tale" is a good or prophetic book.

It's weird that you think everyone who disagrees with you is Hitler. And it's weird that you act like a joke about Puerto Rico heralds the coming fascist state. Normies aren't crazy about language and decorum policing. And you sound like a bunch of nags and prigs.

Perhaps you've become this way because your leaders and activists hail from sprawling urban areas where people hold lots of exotic views on sex, life and culture. Or maybe it's because many of them have been trained in elite institutions where pseudoscience and cultural Marxism are all the rage. In the past, these types of people were the butt of jokes. Today, they're directing White House policy positions.

Recall that one of Joe Biden's first decisions as president was compelling educational institutions that rely on federal funding to accept biological male athletes in women's sports. Does anyone believe this was a pressing concern of our octogenarian president?

Remember when the White House was draped in rainbow flags and when the administration argued it was imperative to stock elementary school libraries with books about oral sex and gender dysphoria? Pushing sexuality on children is nefarious.

And weird. Very weird.

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David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books -- the most recent, "The Rise of Blue Anon," available Nov. 19. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post and numerous other publications. Follow him on X @davidharsanyi.