Tim Walz, the new Democratic vice-presidential candidate, brought a new narrative to the US election campaign, which was immediately picked up by the mainstream media in America. The current governor of Minnesota began using the word “freak” against Donald Trump and JD Vance, meaning a freak, an eccentric, an unpredictable person (i.e. someone you can joke around with at a party, but you can’t, God forbid, leave him in the hands of any authority). However, the above term did not have clearly negative connotations, so Walz began to describe his competitors with the adjective “weird,” that is, bizarre, disturbing, creepy. Finally, he added the word “creepy,” meaning a terrifying, disgusting, or frightening person. Against the backdrop of such rivals, the Democratic representatives represent – as they emphasize, and many media outlets repeat – the desired normality.
Today, the entire narrative of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s campaign team is built on this fundamental difference – between normality and abnormality. Constantly emphasizing this contrast is also a way of avoiding discussions on issues that bother Democrats: the economy, immigration, security, public order, etc.
And who is abnormal here?
It must be admitted that this is a rather surprising move from circles that oppose the use of the word “normal”. Left-liberal circles claim that it is not so much a descriptive term as an evaluative one, which is why they always protest vehemently when we talk about a normal family, a normal marriage, normal sexual behavior, etc. In their opinion, social reality is not normative, so anyone who talks about normality is automatically suspected of being someone with authoritarian and intolerant views.
Suddenly, however, in the face of the election campaign, the damned concept of normality prevails again. It must be admitted, however, that this is an unusual normality. It is normal to kill a child in the ninth month of pregnancy or even after birth, but defending life is abnormal. It is normal to say that a man can give birth to a child, but it is abnormal to insist that a man cannot be a mother. It is normal to amputate healthy organs from children (cutting off boys’ penises and girls’ breasts), but protesting against it is abnormal. It is normal to believe that there are dozens of genders, but it is abnormal to believe that we only have two genders: male and female.
This is the “normality” of the world in reverse, in which concepts are transformed into their inverses: conformism is called intransigence, herd behavior is called individualism, violation of the law is called restoration of the rule of law, etc. The electoral triumph of the Democrats will mean not only the political victory of their camp, but also the victory of this understanding of “normality.”
