Barstool Conservatives’ Political Choices Post-Roe

In recent years a lot of words have been devoted to the rise of the so-called barstool conservatives. The term, coined by Matthew Walther, is a reference to the fratty, politically incorrect style of commentary championed by Barstool Sports, and describes a cohort of voters who have moved into the Republican Party over the course of the past half decade — partially because of a friendliness to Donald Trump, and partially because of an alienation from left-wing cultural pieties. Walther writes:

I would contest Walther’s characterization of the issues as “nebulous”: While some “concerns about political correctness” are “vague,” there are also distinct debates — on gender ideology, critical race theory and anti-American curricula in schools, the broader assault on American history and identity, and so on — that are the particulars of broader discussions of “wokeness.” Insofar as they are driven by an antipathy to the Left’s position on these questions, the barstool conservatives represent a kind of “cultural” conservatism, however shallow or flawed it may be.

In recent years a lot of words have been devoted to the rise of the so-called barstool conservatives. The term, coined by Matthew Walther, is a reference to the fratty, politically incorrect style of commentary championed by Barstool Sports, and describes a cohort of voters who have moved into the Republican Party over the course of the past half decade — partially because of a friendliness to Donald Trump, and partially because of an alienation from left-wing cultural pieties. Walther writes:

I would contest Walther’s characterization of the issues as “nebulous”: While some “concerns about political correctness” are “vague,” there are also distinct debates — on gender ideology, critical race theory and anti-American curricula in schools, the broader assault on American history and identity, and so on — that are the particulars of broader discussions of “wokeness.” Insofar as they are driven by an antipathy to the Left’s position on these questions, the barstool conservatives represent a kind of “cultural” conservatism, however shallow or flawed it may be.