"Those Willing to Trash the Democratic Cultural Regime Most Loudly and Consistently Are Firmly in Command"

"When Republican voters made Trump their presidential nominee in 2016, they chose gloves-off culture war over either Jeb Bush's earnest compromise or the imitations of a careerist provocateur like Sen. Ted Cruz. Trump tapped into a very real dissatisfaction in the American electorate with the liberal status quo around speech and culture, and reaped both the attendant rewards and backlash. Someone like Dave Portnoy is, if not a viable presidential candidate, at least a credible successor to the role of the office's last Republican occupant: Trump, Gaetz, Boebert, Cawthorn and their ilk all share Portnoy's single-minded obsession with scoring headlines and affirming their constituents’ cultural identities at any cost."

Derek Robertson at Politico explains the rise of the "Barstool Republican."