What is “weird” and what is “normal” in America? Democrats are, finally, asserting their right to define the boundaries of normalcy – and their claim to be defending the nation’s true ideals against the reactionary assault. Some thoughts from my new piece: 🧵1/ - ThreadSky

thomaszimmer.bsky.social • 194 days ago

What is “weird” and what is “normal” in America?

Democrats are, finally, asserting their right to define the boundaries of normalcy – and their claim to be defending the nation’s true ideals against the reactionary assault.

Some thoughts from my new piece:

🧵1/

Comments

thomaszimmer.bsky.social•194 days ago

I wrote about why the “These guys are weird” messaging matters: It crystallizes a central fault line – who gets to define “normal” America? – and catalyzes a significant shift in how Democrats handle (and finally reject!) Republican assertions of representing “real America.” 2/

thomaszimmer.bsky.social•194 days ago

Since the late 1960s, Republicans have successfully weaponized the idea that they represent the norm that should define the nation. This assertion (in)famously crystallized in the “silent majority” notion Richard Nixon popularized early in his presidency. 3/

thomaszimmer.bsky.social•194 days ago

Nixon’s “silent majority” was unmistakably white, it was older, it shared conservative or even reactionary sensibilities. He precisely captured the trajectory of the Republican Party, both ideologically but also in terms of the demographics and self-perception of its supporters. 4/

thomaszimmer.bsky.social•194 days ago

The mainstream political discourse – and far too many Democrats as well – has accepted and perpetuated this assertion of a white conservative Christian norm that is supposedly shared by the majority of Americans and represented by the Right for far too long. 5/

thomaszimmer.bsky.social•194 days ago

It manifests, for instance, in the pervasive “heartland” idea, which isn’t a place as much as it is a heavily ideological concept implying a status of belonging in “real America” for some people in certain regions, but not for others. 6/

thomaszimmer.bsky.social•194 days ago

This idea of the conservative white Christian norm – and by extension, the GOP’s claim to power as the party embodying and representing this idea – has come under enormous pressure, however, as America has become less white, less Christian, more pluralistic. 7/

elliotghoul.bsky.social•194 days ago

Meanwhile they’re weird little freaks

erin-p.bsky.social•193 days ago

This is an excellent analysis. Thank you!

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply