The marked shift in tone first appeared in a press release on July 25. In recounting an interview Trump gave to Fox News, Harris’s campaign invoked one of his favorite themes, Project 2025but he also said: “Is Trump old and quite weird?”
While the “weird” strategy may be new to Democrats, Republicans have been using it for years under a different name: cringe.
Since Gamergate, right-wing provocateurs have portrayed Democrats and liberals as people of shame. Go to YouTube and you’ll find countless videos titled something like “SJWS OWNED COMPILATION #2” or “SJW Cringe & Feminist Fails Compilation” with millions upon millions of views. Some creators have built entire digital careers out of mocking “shaming” leftists. Here’s how the Blue-haired liberal stereotype It originated and colored the conservative views of liberals for years.
For the first time, Republicans are on the receiving end of a shameful crusade. It doesn’t help that the former president’s party is now made up of political influencers and associates like LibsofTikTok, random avatars of Roman statues, and even “Catturd Party Elder.”It has made it nearly impossible for them to escape the extraneous accusations, and it doesn’t help that, in response to the attacks, They just acted even stranger..
Vance’s personal history doesn’t do him any favors either. Kyle Tharp, who writes the FWIW newsletter (it’s great, Come on sub!), he says. “As an older millennial, (Vance) has clearly spent a lot of time in these male-dominated right-wing corners of the internet, and that, unfortunately or fortunately, has influenced a lot of the talking points that he’s going to use.”
On TikTok and X, the right-wing reaction to the change has been primarily from Democrats. with more ammunitionAnd Harris’s campaign is capitalizing on that: Since Harris took over BidenHQ’s TikTok account, the number of followers has increased fivefold, and she has been able to ride the wave of favorable content without feeling embarrassed. For now, the winds are in her favor, but as we’ve seen with Trump and Vance, it may not last forever.
The chat room
This week, I’ve been writing a lot about how everyone from Swifties to politicians are using social media to organize and communicate with voters. I like to think I’m aware of all the interesting stuff happening in the space, but I have my blind spots. What kind of interesting political organizing have you seen on social media that I should know about?
Something I haven’t mentioned about Harris’s digital strategy is how they’re hosting Zoom community calls. At this point in the cycle, supporters are at their most enthusiastic, and the campaign wants to capitalize on that energy beyond inspiring TikTok edits. On many of these Zoom calls, Harris campaign staffers are walking attendees through their phone and text banking systems and instructing them on how to volunteer. It seems the campaign understands this enthusiasm won’t last forever, and they’re showing voters how to support them offline, too.
