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    Barstool Conservatism, Revisited

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    Despite Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election, his political coalition was already expanding in consequential ways. Not only did he make notable gains among Hispanic and African-American voters — gains that only increased this year — but he also attracted the support of a loose grouping of mostly young, male voters whom I described around that time as “Barstool conservatives.” This year, as I had predicted, they appeared to swing hard for Mr. Trump.“Barstool conservatism” was a reference to the media company Barstool Sports and its founder, Dave Portnoy, who became a folk hero of sorts in 2020 after raising millions of dollars on behalf of bars and restaurants whose existence had been threatened by Covid lockdowns. Apart from Mr. Portnoy, Barstool conservatism’s most representative figures today are the podcast host Joe Rogan, the retired N.F.L. punter turned ESPN personality Pat McAfee and various mixed martial arts fighters.Barstool conservatism is libertarian in the sense that it values autonomy and ambition but not doctrinaire about it in a way that would be recognizable to, say, the editors of Reason magazine. It is a world of fantasy football podcasts, betting apps, diet trends (keto, paleo, carnivore) and more nebulous “lifestyle” questions about the nuances of alcohol and cannabis use. The outlook is culturally rather than socially conservative, skeptical of racial and gender politics for reasons that have more to do with the stridency of their proponents than with any deep-seated convictions about the issues themselves.As a social conservative with an antipathy to libertarianism in all its forms, I viewed the rise of Barstool conservatism in 2020 with foreboding. And rightly so. This year Mr. Trump ran what was, in effect, a pro-choice campaign. He signaled support for legalized cannabis but not for a traditional conception of marriage. He may have selected JD Vance as his running mate, but otherwise he took social conservatives for granted. Barstool conservatives had the upper hand throughout the campaign, as underscored by the emphasis Mr. Trump’s team placed on Mr. Rogan’s endorsement.I have long been inclined to make certain hard and fast distinctions between Barstool conservatism and Trumpism of the sort that Mr. Vance represents, which I associate with opposition to abortion, pornography and cannabis, and support for traditional families, shoring up the power of organized labor and protecting religious freedom. In theory these two conservative tendencies are diametrically opposed. Until recently I would have suggested that only Mr. Trump could possibly unite them, by sheer force of personality.But since this year’s election I have been on an informal listening tour of young men in the part of rural Michigan where I live, which is a nice way of saying that I have spent a lot of time talking to people in bars. What I heard from mechanics, waiters, high school teachers and others often surprised me. The future of American conservatism now strikes me as more complex and less ideologically predictable — and less dependent on Mr. Trump — than I had thought.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Cuatro de los comentarios más dispersos de Trump esta semana

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      El expresidente dice que le gusta tejer una trama al saltar de un tema a otro. Pero hay quienes ven algo más preocupante en sus divagaciones.Uno de los principios del mundo Trump es que ser considerado aburrido es un pecado más mortal que estar equivocado.En campaña, el expresidente Donald Trump a menudo lo interpreta como que debe salirse del guion y desviarse del mensaje. Sus críticos dicen que esos desvíos son una señal preocupante de su incoherencia y plantean dudas sobre su edad y su salud cognitiva. Muchos de sus partidarios y aliados consideran que su forma circular de hablar, que él llama “la trama”, es entretenida y no alarmante. El debate partidista sobre las implicaciones del discurso serpenteante de Trump solo se ha intensificado en la fase final de la contienda.Aquí cuatro ejemplos de las divagaciones de Trump en esta última semana.Niños en edad escolar le preguntaron por los héroes de su infancia. Él terminó hablando del muro fronterizoEra una pregunta suave, de un niño de 10 años. La respuesta de Trump fue más bien un tiro sin rumbo.Un grupo de niños hizo preguntas a Trump el viernes en Fox & Friends. Cuando le pidieron que nombrara a su presidente favorito cuando era niño, Trump citó primero a quien había sido elegido cuando él tenía 34 años (Ronald Reagan). Luego se aventuró en terrenos sorprendentes, incluido el tema favorito de todos los niños, el acuerdo comercial revisado del TLCAN, conocido como el Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Estados Unidos, México y Canadá.DANIEL: Presidente Trump, soy Daniel. Y tengo 10 años. Y soy de Tennessee. ¿Cuál era su presidente favorito cuando era pequeño?DONALD TRUMP: Me gustaba Ronald Reagan. Pensaba que era… mira… no me encantaba su política comercial. Yo soy muy bueno en comercio, he hecho grandes acuerdos comerciales para nosotros, e, TLCAN. Ese no era su punto fuerte, pero Ronald Reagan tenía una gran dignidad. Podías decir: “Ahí está nuestro presidente”, más que cualquiera de los otros. Realmente, cualquiera de los otros. Los grandes presidentes… bueno, Lincoln fue probablemente un gran presidente. Aunque siempre he dicho, ¿por qué no se resolvió? ¿Sabes? Soy un tipo que… no tiene sentido que tuviéramos una guerra civil.BRIAN KILMEADE, copresentador de Fox & Friends: Bueno, la mitad del país se fue antes de que él llegara.TRUMP: Sí, sí. Pero casi dirías, como, ¿por qué no fue eso —como ejemplo, lo de Ucrania nunca habría sucedido y Rusia si yo fuera presidente. Israel nunca habría ocurrido. El 7 de octubre nunca habría ocurrido. Como sabes, Irán estaba en bancarrota, querían hacer un trato. Les dije: “Nadie compra petróleo a Irán, están, están acabados, ya saben, no pueden hacer tratos con Estados Unidos”. Nadie compraba petróleo a Irán. Vinieron, querían hacer un trato y ahora tienen 300.000 millones de dólares en efectivo. Biden ha estado —y ella, ella es, no sé si estuvo involucrada en ello, pero ella es, ella es terrible. Oye, mira, recuerda esto, ella era la zarina de la frontera, nunca fue allí.Era la zarina de la frontera y la Patrulla Fronteriza, lo único que tienes que recordar, es que la Patrulla Fronteriza dio el respaldo más fuerte que nadie haya visto jamás: él es el mejor que hay y que nunca ha habido —es el mejor presidente, el mejor en la frontera, y ella es terrible. Esa era su política. Y estos tipos son geniales, por cierto. Son geniales— los conoces bien del programa. Tenemos el mejor respaldo y eso realmente lo dice todo. Y creo que la frontera es más importante que la inflación y la economía.Ya sabes, veo tus encuestas donde dicen que la economía y la inflación son lo primero y lo segundo. Y luego dicen —siempre dicen, como lo tercero— creo que la frontera es lo más importante. Fui elegido en 2016 por la frontera. Hice un gran trabajo. Ni siquiera pude mencionarlo después porque a nadie le importaba porque lo hice —se arregló. Teníamos una gran frontera. Luego la echaron a perder y tengo que volver a hacerlo. La diferencia es que esta vez es mucho peor. Porque están dejando entrar en el país a millones de personas que no deberían estar aquí.LAWRENCE JONES, copresentador de Fox & Friends: presidente, tenemos una divertida…TRUMP: pero lo arreglaremos.JONES: tenemos a un niño de 6 años de Massachusetts y quiere saber cuál es tu animal favorito.Cuando se le preguntó por la inflación, se refirió a su enfado con la experiencia universitaria de Alexandria Ocasio-CortezEl martes, John Micklethwait, editor en jefe de Bloomberg News, preguntó a Trump sobre el dólar y si sus políticas harían subir la inflación. Trump produjo una novela verbal, cuyo primer capítulo se refería más a los estudios universitarios de la representante Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez que a la macroeconomía.Trump con el editor en jefe de Bloomberg, John Micklethwait, durante una entrevista en Chicago el martes. Jim Vondruska para The New York TimesTRUMP: Sí, tuve cuatro años sin inflación. Tuve cuatro años sin inflación. Tuve cuatro años. Es mejor que eso. Y Biden, quien no tiene ni idea de dónde demonios está, ¿ok? Biden estuvo dos años sin inflación porque lo heredó de mí. Y entonces empezaron a gastar dinero como marineros borrachos. Gastaron tanto dinero. Era tan ridículo el dinero que gastaban. Estaban gastando en la Nueva Estafa Verde, una Nueva Estafa Verde, el Nuevo Trato Verde. Lo concibió AOC, más tres. Ni siquiera estudió medio ambiente en la universidad. Fue a una buena universidad. Salió. Simplemente dijo: la Nueva Estafa Verde. Se limitó a nombrar todas estas cosas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Four of Trump’s Most Meandering Remarks This Week

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      One of the truisms of Trump World is that being viewed as boring is a sin more deadly than being wrong.On the campaign trail, former President Donald J. Trump often takes that to mean he must go off-script and veer off message. His critics say such detours are a troubling sign of his incoherence and raise questions about his age and cognitive health. Many of his supporters and allies see his circular way of speaking, which he calls “the weave,” as entertaining and not alarming. The partisan debate over the implications of Mr. Trump’s meandering speech has only intensified in the final stage of the race.Here are four examples of Mr. Trump’s rambling from just this past week.Schoolchildren asked him about boyhood heroes. He ended up at the border wall.It was a softball question, from a 10-year-old. Mr. Trump’s response was more of a knuckleball.A group of children asked Mr. Trump questions on Friday on “Fox & Friends.” Asked to name his favorite president when he was a child, Mr. Trump at first cited one who was elected when he was 34 (Ronald Reagan). Then he ventured onto surprising terrain, including every child’s favorite subject, the revised NAFTA trade deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.DANIEL: President Trump, I’m Daniel. And I’m 10. And I’m from Tennessee. What was your favorite president when you were little?DONALD TRUMP: So I liked Ronald Reagan. I thought he was, um, look — I did not love his trade policy. I’m a very good trade — I have made some great trade deals for us — the U.S.M.C.A. That wasn’t his strength, but he had a great dignity about him, Ronald Reagan. You could say, “There’s our president,” more than any of the others. Really, any of the others. Uh, great presidents — well, Lincoln was probably a great president. Although I’ve always said, why wasn’t that settled? You know? I’m a guy that — it doesn’t make sense we had a civil war.BRIAN KILMEADE, “Fox & Friends” co-host: Well, half the country left before he got there.TRUMP: Yeah, yeah. But you’d almost say, like, why wasn’t that — as an example, Ukraine would have never happened and Russia if I were president. Israel would have never happened. Oct. 7 would have never happened. As you know, Iran was broke, they wanted to make a deal. I told, “Anybody buys any oil from Iran, it’s, you’re, you’re finished, you know, you can’t deal with the United States.” Nobody was buying oil from Iran. They came, they wanted to make a deal — now they have $300 billion in cash. Biden has been — and her, she’s, I don’t know if she was involved in it, but she’s, she’s terrible. Hey, look, remember this, she was the border czar, she never went there.She was border czar and the Border Patrol, the one thing you have to remember, the Border Patrol gave strongest endorsement that anybody has ever seen: He’s the best there is, there has never been — he’s the greatest president, the greatest at the border, and she’s terrible. That was their policy. And these guys are great, by the way. These are great — you know them well from the show. We got the best endorsement and that really says it all. And I think the border is the bigger thing than inflation and the economy.You know, I watch your polling where it says the economy and inflation are No. 1, 2. And then it says — always says, like, the three — I think the border is bigger. I got elected in 2016 on the border. I did a great job. I couldn’t even mention it after that because nobody cared because I did — it was fixed. We had a great border. Then they blew it, and I have to do it again. The difference is, it’s much worse this time. Because they are allowing millions of people into the country that shouldn’t be here.LAWRENCE JONES, “Fox & Friends” co-host: Mr. President, we’ve got a fun one —TRUMP: But we’ll fix it.JONES: We’ve got a 6-year-old from Massachusetts and he wants to know about your favorite animal.Asked about inflation, he roamed to his annoyance with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s college experience.On Tuesday, John Micklethwait, the editor in chief of Bloomberg News, asked Mr. Trump about the dollar and whether his policies would drive up inflation. Mr. Trump produced a verbal novel, the first chapter of which touched more on Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s undergraduate studies than on macroeconomics.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Have We Reached Peak Human Life Span?

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      After decades of rising life expectancy, the increases appear to be slowing. A new study calls into question how long even the healthiest of populations can live.The oldest human on record, Jeanne Calment of France, lived to the age of 122. What are the odds that the rest of us get there, too?Not high, barring a transformative medical breakthrough, according to research published Monday in the journal Nature Aging.The study looked at data on life expectancy at birth collected between 1990 and 2019 from some of the places where people typically live the longest: Australia, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Data from the United States was also included, though the country’s life expectancy is lower.The researchers found that while average life expectancies increased during that time in all of the locations, the rates at which they rose slowed down. The one exception was Hong Kong, where life expectancy did not decelerate.The data suggests that after decades of life expectancy marching upward thanks to medical and technological advancements, humans could be closing in on the limits of what’s possible for average life span.“We’re basically suggesting that as long as we live now is about as long as we’re going to live,” said S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Chicago at Illinois, who led the study. He predicted maximum life expectancy will end up around 87 years — approximately 84 for men, and 90 for women — an average age that several countries are already close to achieving.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump prometió hacer público su historial médico pero sigue sin hacerlo

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      Si vuelve a ser elegido, se convertirá en el presidente de mayor edad al final de su mandato. Sin embargo, se niega a revelar incluso la información médica básica.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Como candidato presidencial en 2015, Donald Trump se negó a publicar su historial médico, ofreciendo en su lugar una carta de cuatro párrafos de su médico personal en la que proclamaba que sería “la persona más sana jamás elegida para la presidencia”.En 2020, cuando estuvo hospitalizado por COVID-19 y se presentaba a la reelección, los médicos de Trump dieron una información mínima sobre su estado, que, según se supo más tarde, fue mucho más grave de lo que dejó entrever las descripciones públicas.En 2024, días antes de convertirse en el candidato presidencial republicano oficial por tercera vez, fue rozado por una bala de un posible asesino, pero su campaña no celebró una sesión informativa sobre su estado, no publicó los registros hospitalarios ni puso a disposición a los médicos de urgencias que lo trataron para ser entrevistados.Ahora, a poco más de un mes de unas elecciones que podrían convertir a Trump, de 78 años, en la persona de mayor edad en ocupar la presidencia (82 años, 7 meses y 6 días cuando su mandato termine en enero de 2029), se niega a revelar incluso la información más básica sobre su salud.Si gana, Trump podría entrar en el Despacho Oval con una serie de problemas potencialmente preocupantes, según los expertos médicos: factores de riesgo cardíaco, posibles secuelas del intento de asesinato de julio y el deterioro cognitivo que se produce de forma natural con la edad, entre otros.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Young Americans Can’t Keep Funding Boomers and Beyond

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      You know the expression “OK, Boomer”? Better said as “Boomer OK.” That’s because the social safety net in the United States is increasingly favoring the old over the young. And this affects our political views and the security of future generations.Younger Americans have valid reason for disgruntlement: Big shifts in income and wealth are dramatically favoring their elders. Under almost every president since 1980, 80 percent of the real growth in domestic spending has gone to Social Security and health care, with Medicare the most expensive health program, according to calculations based on federal data. As a share of GDP, all other domestic outlays combined have declined.Our current tax system also largely does not help Americans, most of whom are younger, pay for their higher education. That wasn’t as big a deal in the 1960s or 1970s, when the average college graduate most likely had little or no student debt. Today, the average taken out each year is about seven times that in 1971, in part because state governments have stripped colleges and universities of funding. This is happening at a time when owning a house is increasingly out of reach. The median price has risen from about 3.5 times median annual income in 1984 to 5.8 times in 2022.So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that today, younger generations are more likely to fall into lower-income classes than their parents or grandparents. Nearly a half century ago, it was the reverse. And in 1989, the median net worth of Americans aged 35 to 44 was nearly 75 percent of those aged 65 to 74. By 2022, that ratio had fallen to one-third.The why is simple. Unlike most other spending, Congress effectively designed Medicare in 1965 and Social Security in the 1970s in such a way that outlays would increase forever faster than our national income. That’s partly because Medicare costs keep rising along with medical prices and new treatments and because Social Security benefits are designed to increase for each new generation along with inflation and wages. And we’re living longer, which means more years of benefits.Today, tax revenues are so committed to mandatory spending, largely for older Americans, and to interest on the national debt (which has quadrupled as a share of G.D.P. since 1980) that few revenues are left for everything else. So, unless we borrow to pay for it, there’s little for education, infrastructure, environment, affordable housing, reducing poverty, or the military.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Maria Branyas Morera, World’s Oldest Person, Dies at 117

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      Ms. Morera, who cultivated a following on social media as “Super Catalan Grandma,” died peacefully in her sleep, her family said.Maria Branyas Morera, an American-born Spanish woman believed to be the oldest person in the world, has died, according to her family. She was 117.Ms. Morera died on Aug. 19 in Olot, Spain, according to an employee at her nursing home, Residencia Santa Maria del Tura. Her family wrote in a post on her X account that she had died peacefully, in her sleep.“A few days ago she told us: ‘One day I will leave here. I will not try coffee again, nor eat yogurt,’” her family wrote in Spanish in the post. “‘I will also leave my memories, my reflections and I will cease to exist in this body. One day I don’t know, but it’s very close, this long journey will be over.’”Born in March 1907 in San Francisco, Ms. Morera grew up in several American cities, including New Orleans, where her father, a journalist, started a Spanish-language magazine that went bankrupt, according to several news stories written about her life. Facing dire straits, the family returned to Spain when Ms. Morera was a child.There, she lived through the brutal Franco regime, when the country was wracked by civil war, and she survived both World Wars. She had clear memories of the D-Day invasion at Normandy, she told the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.“I haven’t done anything special to get to this age,” she said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País earlier this year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      After Biden Drops Out, Democratic Voters Express Both Relief and Doubt

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      Democratic voters said they were relieved that President Biden was ending his campaign, but many said they remain worried about the political path ahead.For Democratic voters who have spent much of the summer brooding about President Biden’s fitness for office, his decision on Sunday not to seek re-election came as a relief. Now, they figured, their political party might stand a chance in November — though many still expressed deep doubts.“I’m overjoyed, absolutely overjoyed,” said Mark Oliver Rylance, 67, a Democrat from Columbus, Ohio, said about Mr. Biden’s announcement. Just last weekend, Mr. Rylance participated in a demonstration outside of the Ohio Democratic Party convention calling for Mr. Biden to step aside.“If Biden had stayed in, we would have lost absolutely everything,” he added, echoing the feelings of many Democrats. “We would have lost the House, would have lost the Senate, and it could very well have been a landslide.”The delicate subjects of whether Mr. Biden, 81, was fit for another term and how long he might stay in the race after his disastrous debate performance last month had found their way into conversations at dinner parties, neighborhood parks and church gatherings. The end of Mr. Biden’s candidacy on Sunday shifted some Democrats’ emotions from profound anxiety to hopeful determination, even if what comes next for their party remains unclear.There was also plenty of resignation to the idea that no Democrat might be able to pull off a victory against former President Donald J. Trump.Mr. Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the ticket drew quick support from some voters eager to chart a path forward. But, underscoring the party’s tumult, others were certain that Ms. Harris, whose own presidential campaign four years ago fizzled, would face ugly attacks and rejection.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      I Was a White House Doctor. Presidents Should Have to Take Cognitive Tests.

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      The job of president is physically and mentally demanding. I witnessed this firsthand as a White House physician for three presidents, including as the designated physician to the president for Barack Obama during his first term. My presidential patients often worked 12-hour days seven days a week. The leader of the free world travels constantly, and participates in or leads briefings in which he must retain huge amounts of information.Health scares can happen at any moment. My role as White House physician was to keep the president healthy and performing optimally, and to provide the public with a candid medical assessment of his ability to carry out the duties of his office.I participated in tabletop exercises in the Situation Room to go over how to follow Section 3 of the 25th Amendment, which deals with succession in the event the president is disabled or incapacitated. Typically, the 25th Amendment came into play when a president was going under general anesthesia for a colonoscopy or scheduled surgical procedure.It is widely assumed that the physician to the president will gather and provide pertinent medical information to those contemplating whether the amendment needs to be invoked. This is not stipulated, but most in the medical community agree that the appropriate role for a physician is to offer a medical opinion, based on facts, that is then weighed by the patient — in this case the president — and those around him.The debates around the fitness of Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the last several weeks have created new pressure to start having serious conversations about exactly how the White House medical team should evaluate presidents and determine their fitness for duty — cognitively as well as physically. This has been the subject of decades of discussion within the White House medical team as well as with the broader medical community.Many Americans may want the White House medical team to take a more active role in declaring the president fit for duty. Many would probably like to see the same standard apply to candidates running for president as well. For those things to happen, these medical teams will need access to more data about these individuals than they now collect. And perhaps even more important, we should seriously consider the need for an age limit for those running for president, given the high stakes of the office and the realities of cognitive decline with aging.Many cognitive abilities decrease with ageWhile we retain much of our vocabulary as we get older, cognitive abilities such as speed and reasoning tend to decline more rapidly after age 60. More