Seth Masket: “Okay, what the hell’s going on here? I haven’t heard this many gay taunts since middle school. In the 80s.”
“Well for one thing, Paxton does not have a great hand in this contest. He’s a strikingly unpopular political figure in Texas and was actually impeached for bribery and other crimes in a bipartisan vote a few years ago. Talarico, meanwhile, has proven very media-savvy and engaging. There’s also a strong national tide against Republicans right now (even popular ones!), and Paxton knows that just talking up his fealty to Trump is probably not enough to win this contest. So he’s just going personal and homophobic, in a shockingly overt manner. It makes one long for the subtlety of Trump’s ‘Kamala’s for they/them; Trump’s for you’ ad from two years ago.”
“Part of this is a relatively new trend in conservative politics, with many conservatives embracing a performative hyper-masculinity and obsessing on traditional (and in many cases imaginary) gender roles. For God’s sake, there was a UFC match on the White House lawn yesterday.”
