{"id":1464649,"date":"2022-05-05T08:01:08","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1464649"},"modified":"2022-05-05T08:01:17","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T12:01:17","slug":"will-dobbs-splinter-the-gops-barstool-conservative-coalition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-dobbs-splinter-the-gops-barstool-conservative-coalition\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Dobbs Splinter The GOP\u2019s \u2018Barstool Conservative\u2019 Coalition?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwill-dobbs-splinter-the-gops-barstool-conservative-coalition%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1464649&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-04-at-4.37.28-PM-1024x542-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The \u201cBarstool Conservatives\u201d theory is real, and Dave Portnoy just illustrated why. Reacting to the leaked <em>Dobbs <\/em>opinion on his show this week, Portnoy, an early Trump supporter, was emphatic. \u201cIf that\u2019s an issue, I vote Democrat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><\/figure>\n<p>In 2021, Matthew Walther coined the phrase \u201cBarstool Conservatives,\u201d defining the group \u201cas a coalition who share [Portnoy\u2019s] disdain for the language of liberal improvement, the hectoring, schoolmarmish attitude of Democratic politicians and their allies in the media, and, above all, the elevation of risk-aversion to the level of a first-order principle by our professional classes.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Indeed, when Portnoy endorsed Trump in 2015, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10717165\/Dave-Portnoy-says-Donald-Trump-worse-option-Biden-2024.html\">wrote<\/a>, \u201cI am voting for Donald Trump. I don\u2019t care if he\u2019s a joke. I don\u2019t care if he\u2019s racist. I don\u2019t care if he\u2019s sexist. I don\u2019t care about any of it. I hope he stays in the race and I hope he wins. Why? Because I love the fact that he is making other politicians squirm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love the fact he says sh-t nobody else will say regardless of how ridiculous it is,\u201d Portnoy added, surely channeling a popular sentiment at the time.<\/p>\n<p>By 2021, Walther\u2019s outline of the \u201cBarstool Conservative\u201d demographic was fully formed and very attached to Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Trump recognized was that there are millions of Americans who do not oppose or even care about abortion or same-sex marriage, much less stem-cell research or any of the other causes that had animated traditional social conservatives,\u201d Walther observed. \u201cInstead he correctly intuited that the new culture war would be fought over very different (and more nebulous) issues: vague concerns about political correctness and \u2018SJWs,\u2019 opposition to the popularization of so-called critical race theory, sentimentality about the American flag and the military, the rights of male undergraduates to engage in fornication while intoxicated without fear of the Title IX mafia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Walther continued. \u201cWhatever their opinions might have been 20 years ago, in 2021 these are people who, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, accept pornography, homosexuality, drug use, legalized gambling, and whatever GamerGate was about. On economic questions their views are a curious and at times incoherent mixture of standard libertarian talking points and pseudo-populism, embracing lower taxes on the one hand and stimulus checks and stricter regulation of social media platforms on the other.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>As Portnoy sought to make sense of the Dobbs leak this week, he defaulted to the standard libertarian position on abortion, arguing it was a matter of \u201csmaller government.\u201d We don\u2019t, of course, see murder laws as a matter of limited government, so that logic isn\u2019t exactly sound if you believe abortion involves the death of a child.<\/p>\n<p>But Portnoy\u2019s position makes a whole lot of sense in the \u201cBarstool Conservatives\u201d framework. If you detest the establishment and political correctness more than you worry about most GOP candidates\u2019 social conservatism, Trump is a palatable alternative to Hillary Clinton or even Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Thus a coalition was forged of secular libertarians and traditionalist conservatives since both blocs have rightfully prioritized their opposition to the radical left since Trump\u2019s rise. (Democrats have not produced anything similar.) If Portnoy is representative\u2014and he has been so far\u2014<em>Dobbs <\/em>could expose the weakness that\u2019s always existed in that coalition\u2019s foundation, threatening the GOP\u2019s ability to benefit from it in the future.<\/p>\n<p>This, of course, is not to say Republicans should continue squirming on the question of life. This moment demands strength and clarity: Abortion kills a baby. It is wrong. It is a stain on our society. If that alienates \u201cBarstool\u201d voters, so be it.  <\/p>\n<p>Although we don\u2019t often think of our sexual norms this way, Portnoy and Barstool actually exemplify the tragedies of post-<em>Roe<\/em> America. Janet Yellen and her husband co-authored a study for Brookings all the way back in 1996, explaining how the proliferation of contraceptives and abortion in the late 1960s and early 1970s increased out-of-wedlock births. \u201cSexual activity without commitment was increasingly expected in premarital relationships,\u201d they <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/05\/04\/as-roe-hangs-in-the-balance-an-ugly-class-blindspot-distorts-abortion-discours\/\">noted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For men like Portnoy who\u2019ve enjoyed this new arrangement, in which women believe commitment-free sex is acceptable and empowering, abortion has served as a crucial safeguard against unexpected and premarital fatherhood. To revoke it is to revoke freedom. Generations of Americans were born after <em>Roe<\/em> and told by the pro-abortion establishment for years it was settled law, despite the many flaws even liberal scholars found in the opinion. The pro-life position on <em>Dobbs<\/em>, in this tragic context, feels radical. <\/p>\n<p>Portnoy is an entertaining, often clever character. As the victim of a shoddy piece of #MeToo journalism from Business Insider earlier this year, Portnoy punched back by copping to consensual hookups and publishing a trove of direct messages between him and his accusers that contradicted the report\u2019s allegations. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike these girls say,\u201d Portnoy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barstoolsports.com\/blog\/3402665\/i-am-officially-suing-julia-black-and-business-insider\">wrote<\/a> on Barstool, \u201cI video them without consent and I\u2019m too rough for them and then they come back over a week later and we have sex again and I video them without consent again and then they come back over a week later and I video them again without consent.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In a country where abortion hadn\u2019t contributed to the shift in sexual dynamics described by Yellen and her husband, Portnoy wouldn\u2019t have much luck finding so many women willing to throw themselves at him without a whiff of commitment. It\u2019s worth noting that Gen Z is rethinking the benefits of \u201csex positivity\u201d the media pushed on them for years. \u201cHBO somehow did a number on me,\u201d one girl <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/madeleineholden\/gen-z-sex-positivity\">told<\/a> BuzzFeed recently. <\/p>\n<p>By the 2010s, women <a href=\"https:\/\/ifstudies.org\/blog\/counterintuitive-trends-in-the-link-between-premarital-sex-and-marital-stability\">were<\/a> more likely to have had multiple premarital sex partners. The percentage of women with zero and one partners dropped from 21 percent to 5 percent and 43 percent to 22 percent respectively. Recent indications suggest younger Americans, who tend to be more risk averse, are less sexually active than earlier generations, so it\u2019s possible premarital partners will begin falling at some point. But if Americans continue marrying less and marrying older, the numbers could climb. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s fundamentally unhealthy for both men and women, but it\u2019s also the norm. That\u2019s why departures feel radical and could vault abortion to the top of \u201cBarstool\u201d voters\u2019 priority lists. The popular stereotype of Republicans as puritanical wagers of war on women remains potent when these issues are raised to the forefront. <\/p>\n<p>Democrats\u2019 relentless culture war on sex and race has given Republicans serious momentum, especially in places like Florida or San Francisco where attempts to roll back radical leftism have proven popular with a broad coalition of voters. Democrats will have a hard time shaking off their reputation as crazed culture warriors, meaning \u201cBarstool\u201d voters may continue prioritizing pushback on the left and voting red in particular races.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, Trump\u2019s conversion on abortion may have been mirrored by other conversions over the course of his presidency. The realignment politics of the last several years, combined with advancing science and emboldened conservative rhetoric, opened up some people\u2019s eyes to the realities of the Democratic Party\u2019s position on abortion. The more Democrats talk about the issue, the more new media can highlight instances like the one Mollie Hemingway described below, which I had the misfortune of witnessing outside the Supreme Court on Monday night as well. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"iZopzJDkgmtL94Fd0ufsCNwXGbM7aE1lITS62QVWyOYvHcKhqnPRUejr5x\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Keep thinking about an abortion supporter I encountered the other night at the Supreme Court who screamed \u2014 almost as if possessed \u2014 &#8220;KILL THOSE F-CKING BABIES!&#8221; Such hate-filled extremism \u2014 particularly compared to previous mantra of &#8220;safe, legal, RARE&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/H62fSM8hsY\">https:\/\/t.co\/H62fSM8hsY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mollie (@MZHemingway) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MZHemingway\/status\/1521901540495220736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Republican support for the overturn of <em>Roe <\/em>may not single-handedly wipe out the \u201cBarstool Conservative\u201d coalition or stop the GOP\u2019s momentum in the culture war. Portnoy\u2019s reaction to the <em>Dobbs<\/em> leak, however, is a reminder of how fragile that coalition has been since its inception all the way back in 2015. <\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Emily Jashinsky is culture editor at The Federalist and host of Federalist Radio Hour. She previously covered politics as a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner. Prior to joining the Examiner, Emily was the spokeswoman for Young America\u2019s Foundation. She\u2019s interviewed leading politicians and entertainers and appeared regularly as a guest on major television news programs, including \u201cFox News Sunday,\u201d \u201cMedia Buzz,\u201d and \u201cThe McLaughlin Group.\u201d Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Real Clear Politics, and more. Emily also serves as director of the National Journalism Center, host of The Hill\u2019s weekly show \u201cRising Fridays,\u201d and a visiting fellow at Independent Women&#8217;s Forum. Originally from Wisconsin, she is a graduate of George Washington University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The \u201cBarstool Conservatives\u201d theory is real, and Dave Portnoy just illustrated why. Reacting to the leaked Dobbs opinion on his show this week, Portnoy, an early Trump supporter, was emphatic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":554,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1464649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}