Jonathan Bernstein: “Dave Karpf has a good summary of some of the particulars, such as their opposition to ‘Taylor Swift and the NFL and Bud Light,’ but it’s only a small subset of all the bizarre things that politicians and other high-visibility Republicans regularly talk about, Such as, for example, Vance’s criticism of Simone Biles.”
“What’s important to understand about this is it’s not random, and it’s not really personal about either Trump or Vance. Both of them are reacting to the incentives created by the current Republican Party, which is dominated by its party-aligned media. For Fox News and its smaller competitors, and for the even smaller radio shows and web pages, the way to make money is to find a relatively tiny audience and keep them tuning in. There’s no downside to being weird; normal people who pay limited attention to politics aren’t really in the potential audience anyway.”
