Inspired by this post and the fact that I'm seeing a lot of regular libs start to coverage on "these guys are weird little freaks" as a messaging policy, which really seems to be bringing out the 
in the far right. It's working much better for them than all of Biden's attempts to portray Trump as some kind of existential threat to 
.
This is interesting, and only surprising in the sense that it is surprising to see the Democrats do something kind of effective for once. Fascists thrive on being seen as cool, powerful, and dangerous; those aesthetics are central to the brand. Every time Biden gave a big speech about how the future of democracy was on the line in the election, it played into that aesthetic. Every time CNN calls January 6 a "coup attempt," it plays into that aesthetic.
Calling these people weird little freaks with weird dumb ideas and weird creepy fixations does not play into that aesthetic. It breaks the illusion that all the freaks at the RNC wearing bandages on their ears are actually normal and represent normal people. They aren't, and they don't. This is yet another thing that the left has known for some time now, but that libs seem to maybe be catching on to: taking these idiots seriously empowers them. Actually realizing that and using it is one of the smarter things that the Dems have done in a while.
Nightmare scenario is that they pull a Hillary '16 and start funding the extra weird ones behind the scenes.
But yeah, calling them weird seems to really make them mad, at least for now.
I see it as entirely possible that they start to "own" being "weird" in the same way they did with "deplorable". Bigger lift, I think, since, like you said, so much of their brand relies on them being "the real America" or whatever, but I expect there will be "weird" merch at Trump rallies soon.
Yeah, I think it would be really tough for them to own it while also maintaining the rest of the rhetoric (and their ties to Trump). Trump is super weird--he just gets away with it, because he's actually pretty charismatic. I actually think Trump himself could own it and use it (he could lean into "weird" in the sense of "world-historical figure," which is how he wants to see himself), but most of his boosters couldn't handle it. They desperately want to hold on to the idea (and image) that they represent the silent majority; "weird" is incompatible with the whole "retvrn to tradition" presentation.
The rest of them are black holes of charisma though, so as long as they keep trying to be Trump without Trump's humor and charm, they're going to come across as off-putting. JD Vance is a prime example.
They did this in the '22 midterm and from what I remember, it actually worked. The Q lady in Arizona and the dude in Pennsylvania that were running for governor for the Republicans got boosted by the Dems and the more people saw and heard how deranged they were, the worse they did. It can work, but if anyone could fuck it up spectacularly, it'd be the Democrats. Hell, Jamie Harrison is DNC chair now and the only thing he's done is burn a pile of money losing to Lindsay fucking Graham.
Idk, Portland holds claim to that ownership, wouldn’t trying to claim it align them a little too much with that city and all it’s hopelessly liberal vibes?
They may be stuck with creepy weird instead of cool weird.
They've made several attempts to claim "punk rock".