Barstool conservatism

One early use of the phrase came from journalist Matthew Walther who, shortly after Trump's 2017 inauguration, described the group of voters that Trump appealed to and who would influence the Republican Party after he was gone, as "barstool conservatives". He described them as having a libertarian streak at odds with Republican Christian "traditional social conservatives" —they did "not oppose or even care about abortion or same-sex marriage, much less stem-cell research";{{cite news |last1=Walther |first1=Matthew |date=February 1, 2021 |title=Rise of the Barstool conservatives |work=The Week |url=https://theweek.com/articles/964006/rise-barstool-conservatives |access-date=August 10, 2023}} but instead accepted "with varying degrees of enthusiasm .... pornography, homosexuality, drug use, legalized gambling, and whatever GamerGate was about"; but do side with conservatives in having "vague concerns about political correctness and 'SJWs', 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." Reporter Robert Silverman also used the term "Barstool Republicans".{{cite web |date=November 17, 2021 |title=This Far-Right YouTuber Is the Latest Ivermectin Poster Boy |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-right-youtuber-tim-pool-is-the-latest-ivermectin-poster-boy/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240821135441/https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-right-youtuber-tim-pool-is-the-latest-ivermectin-poster-boy |archive-date=August 21, 2024 |access-date=November 2, 2024 |website=The Daily Beast}}

Writing in November 2022, Benjamin Schnurr, describes Barstool, or at least Dave Portnoy's ideas, as "a mixture of politically incorrect and, at times, misogynistic behavior" with "more liberal stances on issues such as women's and LGBTQ rights". Some other descriptions of barstool conservatism are: "horny-bro aesthetic that embraces sports, sex and generally letting 'you do you' (provided you avoid making him do pretty much anything)" (Jane Coaston);{{cite news |last1=Coaston |first1=Jane |title=The Debate Hugh Hefner Won and William Buckley Lost |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/opinion/barstool-social-conservatives-abortion.html |access-date=August 14, 2023 |work=New York Times |date=March 14, 2023}} the meeting of "frat culture and cultural conservatism" (Eumenes of Cardia).{{cite web |last1=Eumenes of Cardia |title=Against Barstool Conservatism |url=https://newcons.org/2021/06/30/against-barstool-conservatism/ |website=New Conservatives |access-date=August 14, 2023 |date=June 30, 2021}}

The traditional American conservative/Republican Party coalition was said to be analogous to a "stool", needing "three legs", namely,

• "social conservatives" seeking to "uphold traditional values and hierarchies", particularly religious ones like banning abortion (i.e. "theocons");
• "libertarians" promoting "small government and free market capitalism", particularly low taxes;
• "foreign policy hawks" advocating for "an active and at times aggressive foreign policy approach", particularly containment of communism (i.e. "neocons").

The integration of these three currents was known as Fusionism. Analogues of "barstool conservatives" were not part of this coalition but gained ground by the 2020s. With the end of the Cold War, the last leg of foreign policy "declined significantly", and by the 2020s religious belief in America had declined, suggesting a diminished importance for the first leg, and low tax, small-government conservatism also reportedly lost support.{{cite web| url=https://www.gzeromedia.com/amp/the-era-of-limited-government-is-over-for-conservatives-2658218348?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17214557323831&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gzeromedia.com%2Fviewpoint%2Fthe-era-of-limited-government-is-over-for-conservatives |title=the-era-of-limited-government-is-over-for-conservatives |website=GZERO |author=Jon Lieber |date=15 September 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-dead-end-of-small-government/ |title=The Dead End of Small Government |date=16 June 2022 |author=Brink Lindsey}}

In the words of Derek Robertson of Politico, when Trump "dismantled that old fusion" of free-market economic enthusiasm and "country-club traditionalism, Barstool was ready." In this new era, Trump was able "to mobilize a varied group of constituencies", particularly barstoolers and social conservatives, who shared "a resentment for new liberal social norms". Matthew Walther and Rod Dreher, alongside Matthew Schmitz,{{cite web |last1=Schmitz |first1=Matthew |title=The Woke and the Un-Woke |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/woke-religion-america |magazine=Tablet |access-date=August 14, 2023 |date=September 24, 2020}} argue that though traditionalists and non-religious "will never agree", they can "ally" with each other, to form a new conservative coalition against "woke utopianism" that is claim to be ascendant in the Democratic Party.{{cite web |last1=Dreher |first1=Rod |title=Barstool Conservatism |url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/barstool-conservatism-right/ |website=The American Conservative |access-date=August 14, 2023 |date=February 1, 2021}} Schnurr thinks it remains to be seen whether the conservative cultural grievances of "stoolies" with microaggressions and political correctness will overcome its libertarian streak for keeping abortion legal, which is a major issue for Portnoy.

Examples of the strength of barstool conservatism in the Republican Party according to Derek Robertson are, Madison Cawthorn, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Donald Trump. Another example is former New York Republican congressman George Santos (the first openly LGBT member elected to Congress as a non-incumbent Republican).{{cite news|last1=McCoy|first1=Terence|last2=Dias|first2=Marina|title=For George Santos, a life in Brazil at odds with his GOP politics|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/31/george-santos-brazil/|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=August 31, 2023|access-date=August 31, 2023|archive-date=August 31, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230831154427/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/31/george-santos-brazil/|url-status=live}}

Robertson credits a 200 word long blog post by Portnoy in August 2015 with the birth of the barstool Republican. He said:

{{blockquote|“I am voting for Donald Trump. I don’t care if he's a joke. I don't care if he’s racist. I don't care if he's sexist. I don't 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. I love the fact he says shit nobody else will say, regardless of how ridiculous it is.”}}

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump's success in appealing to "vice voters" was seen as having "helped propel" him to victory. Vice voters were described as a predominantly young male voting bloc associated with Barstool Conservatism whose voting decisions are perceived as based on candidates support for online gambling, drug legalization, cryptocurrency (activities often described as vices).{{cite news |title=Young men swung to the right for Trump after a campaign dominated by masculine appeals. Young men shifted toward Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election in a change from recent years, when most young male voters backed the Democratic candidate |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/30/trump-young-men-voters-election-latinos-democrats/a638fdb4-af46-11ef-b98c-b3bed6509e98_story.html |access-date=10 December 2024 |work=Washington Post |date=30 November 2024}}

At the same time, at least one observer (Charles Fain Lehman), believes a "backlash" in public opinion against vice is inevitable, as it is only a matter of time before the addictive, medical and psychological side affects of drugs, and the incidents of bankruptcy and ruined credit from gambling and speculation in cryptocurrency, become apparent.{{cite news |title=What Will Trump Do for 'Vice Voters'? |date= 4 December 2024 |work=New York Times |author= Charles Fain Lehman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/opinion/donald-trump-vice-voters.html}}

• Libertarianism in the United States
• Conservatism in the United States
• Calendargate, 2023 controversy seen as pitting Barstool conservatives against social conservatives
• Trumpism
• Dirtbag left
• South Park Republican, a similar trend of libertarians who allied with conservatives, emerging 20 years prior
• Libertarian conservatism
• Libertarian Republican
• Factions in the Republican Party

{{reflist}}

Category:Trumpism

Category:Barstool Sports