Making Trumpism the New Normal

Time profiles Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL): “It’s easy to write Gaetz off as nothing more than a troll, someone who provokes for provocation’s sake. But to do so is to ignore both his policy interests (he’s sponsored 15 bills this term) and the skill with which he reads the Republican electorate. His audience is the demographic of Americans whose politics are less dogma than reflex: a reaction to the perceived sanctimony of a progressive cultural climate that treats conservatism as a punch line and scolds those who fail to use the correct gender pronouns.”

Said Gaetz: “The convention that one should never be perceived to troll another that has a different viewpoint is a very country club approach to politics. And we’re sort of in the era of Caddyshack. The caddies have taken over the country club.”