Good piece by @GrahamDavidA on the ambitious Republican men who act much stupider than they are in a condescending bid to become what they believe their voters want. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Worth noting that this is not an exclusively Trump-era phenomenon. Consider the case of Bobby Jindal, who @GrahamDavidA begins his piece with: 
I wrote about Jindal extensively in my 2015 book (probably too much given how irrelevant he was by the time it came out!) But I thought his trajectory was revealing: Begins his rise with famous "stupid party" speech, ends up campaigning with Duck Dynasty dudes & pandering to Fox
Running for president in either party involves all kinds of indignities. But having talked to Jindal at length, I knew he was smarter than the stuff he was saying on the campaign trail. And of course it didn't even work—voters saw through the schtick & he dropped out before Iowa.
That's the core irony: These guys may think their voters are dumb, but they're often smart enough to realize when they're being pandered to. Sometimes, as in Trump's case, they don't care (they're even flattered!) More often, the performance comes across as pathetic and cringey.
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