\n<\/p>\n
Even Republican cheerleader senator Mitch McConnell<\/strong> despairs over his party\u2019s increasing weirdness.<\/p>\n In 2022, explaining away the GOP\u2019s midterm election performance<\/a> (read: not good!) he basically said, yikes, what can you do? \u201cMy view was do the best you can with the cards you\u2019re dealt,\u201d he said of his fellow Republicans. \u201cNow, hopefully, in the next cycle we\u2019ll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n McConnell is the guy at the rager who\u2019s telling people that he \u201ccame in with those guys, but not, like, with<\/em> those guys\u201d and hissing through his teeth at his colleagues to \u201ctry to act normal.\u201d<\/p>\n No one is immune, no matter their political affiliation. Former president George W. Bush<\/strong> was ahead of the curve in fingering Trump and his cohort as weirdos, a sense of cringe transcending any party loyalties he might have. Officially, he attended Trump\u2019s presidential inauguration in January 2017 to witness the peaceful transfer of power. Unofficially, he reportedly turned to his companions<\/a> as they left the dais and said, \u201cThat was some weird shit.\u201d<\/p>\n TikTok and internet culture aren\u2019t the only fields Harris\u2019s campaign has pulled from. Modern dating parlance lends us the idea of \u201cthe ick,\u201d a term so relatable it was recently added to the Cambridge Dictionary<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s defined as \u201ca sudden feeling that you dislike someone or something or are no longer attracted to someone because of something they do.\u201d<\/p>\n Once you get the ick, you can\u2019t un-ick. Ever. In dating, that might mean losing someone\u2019s number. In politics, the Democrats are hoping that voters\u2019 ick will translate at the polls. Picture senior Democrats pulling voters aside like they\u2019re their closest girlfriends and muttering, \u201cReally? Him<\/em>? But he\u2019s so\u2026weird.\u201d Politicos can\u2019t go all in, Walter Masterson<\/strong> style<\/a>, but they can get away with a deftly wielded light trolling.<\/p>\n Of course, the Unified Theory of Ick (Politics Edition) is nonpartisan, as evidenced by a severe case of the ick being the straw that broke the Biden-reelection-campaign-shaped camel\u2019s back just days ago.<\/p>\n As Lawrence points out, \u201cIf you\u2019re making an attack, and then there\u2019s something that happens that reinforces that, it\u2019s really hard to get away from it. The Biden debate, going into it, [Republicans said], \u2018he\u2019s old, he\u2019s old, he\u2019s old,\u2019 and then he looked old. There\u2019s just no turning away from that. You can\u2019t get that out of people\u2019s heads.\u201d<\/p>\n Again, it goes both ways: \u201cAnd so you have Democrats saying, \u2018they\u2019re weird freaks, they\u2019re weird freaks, they\u2019re weird freaks,\u2019 and then old clips of JD Vance come out talking about cat ladies and talking about how people without children shouldn\u2019t be allowed to vote. Donald Trump talking about Hannibal Lecter like he\u2019s a real person<\/a>. All of that stuff just kind of builds on itself until it becomes a part of the zeitgeist.\u201d<\/p>\n Progressive voters are noticing this linguistic shift<\/a>, and they\u2019re on board.<\/p>\n One person on X wondered why \u201canyone at all\u201d would vote for a Republican. \u201cHateful, cruel, misogynistic and like, vibey in a weird unsettling way,\u201d they wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n