This is an opinion column

America’s political left has unleashed their summer surprise. After millions of dollars, countless consultants, and replacing their candidate, Democrats have announced that Republicans are “weird.” Learning their lesson from pairing a pants suit with the word “deplorables” in 2016, the 2024 progressive campaign apparatus has sharpened messaging by ditching a few syllables. Republicans undoubtedly plan to respond with an aggressive, “I know you are but what am I.”

I hope we’re proud, America.

I completely understand the collective sigh of relief coming from Democrats. Frankly, I applaud my liberal brethren for openly ignoring Biden’s failing capacity, allowing the one percenters in their party to force him from the race, and then reimagining him as “America’s second Cincinnatus” along with George Washington.

Life comes at you fast, so does the Democratic political machine.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz offered specifics to Democratic “weird” campaign. “These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away. They want to be in your exam room. That’s what it comes down to. And don’t, you know, get sugarcoating this. These are weird ideas,” he said.

Republicans do not want to take books away. They would prefer that books with explicit content not be available to young children. Republicans don’t want to be in the exam room. Many do sincerely believe that life is worth protecting from its earliest stages. This is about as run-of-the-mill Republican as it gets.

To be clear, finding weird ideas from Republicans isn’t difficult. The Southern Baptists who are overwhelmingly supportive of the GOP aren’t supportive of in-vitro fertilization. Arguing the embryos stored for a decade are trapping human souls isn’t theologically or scientifically sound. Suggesting that Kamala Harris just “happened to turn Black” is rather bizarre. Let’s not get started with Trump’s obsession over Hannibal Lecter.

The problem for Democrats is that folks in glass houses shouldn’t throw bricks.

I can readily identify Democratic voters because many still wear cloth masks in public as fashion accessories. When they pull them down to talk, eat, and blow their noses, they’re not nearly as cumbersome as they were during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Arguing that adult males who identify as women should be able to compete as females in sports isn’t transphobic; it’s strange. Applauding it is worse.

Democrats also possess a blind faith that more government can cure what ails our nation and world. Want to cure cancer? There’s a government for that. Think the current income distribution isn’t okay? The government can fix it. Concerned that your snack sizes aren’t sufficient? The answer is always another law or government program that isn’t particularly effective.

Does anyone really want to argue that higher education, dominated by the political left, is anything but weird?

We can play the game of which political party is the most bizarre, but we’re basically going to be doing what we’ve done for the last decade or so. Almost all of us are intentionally blind to the unusual and creepy aspects of our preferred party while routinely pointing out the eccentricities of the other.

I’d like to hear some ideas on how we get American families caught up to the runaway inflation. Immigration has been a gaping wound in our nation for decades. How about we get over our partisan priors, treat immigrants well, and enforce our laws? Maybe we could even figure out how to stop World War III before it starts.

The strangest idea in recent political memory is running the entire country without the input of roughly half the electorate. We should be honest. Most of us agree with Democrats some of the time and Republicans at other times. Sometimes both parties get it wrong. We shouldn’t be ashamed to admit that.

It’s going to be a long few months until November. The political candidates will get heated. Schoolyard insults will be traded. We’ll vote to sort it all out. We might not agree on much, but hopefully we can agree on that. The rest of the world might think it’s weird; it’s just American.

Smith is a recovering political attorney with four boys, two dogs, a bearded dragon, and an extremely patient wife. He’s a partner in a media company, a business strategy wonk, and a regular on talk radio. Please direct outrage or agreement to [email protected] or @DCameronSmith on X or @davidcameronsmith on Threads.