THE GOP: VENGEFUL ALPHA WANNABES AND SORE WINNERS

The Republican Party is the party of Greg Gianforte, who body-slammed a reporter for asking a question. It's the party whose voters have embraced Sheriff David Clarke, who summoned five cops and a police dog to detain a man who literally did nothing but glower at him on an airplane. And it's the party of Donald Trump, who thinks it's classy to shove the Montenegrin prime minister out of the way so he can be in the front row in a group photo.

Did Trump just shove another NATO leader to be in the front of the group? pic.twitter.com/bL1r2auELd

— Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) May 25, 2017

Josh Barro has a take on this:

Republicans are a party that now celebrates the bully who steals lunch money because, hey, at least he's not the nerd who gets his lunch money stolen.

A party for the sort of men who call themselves "alpha males" without irony or accuracy. A party for the sort of women who think it's cool and strong when men get into bar fights.

A party that celebrates not just cruelty, but juvenile cruelty.

Why the admiration for this behavior. Why, particularly, the admiration for Trump?

Well, one reason is that many men in America right now have little to offer women. They do not live up to either to the old, chauvinistic standards for adult men or the new, egalitarian ones. They want what Trump has — the women, the money, the brass-plated apartment — without having to do better or be better to get it.

They think they'd be better off under a return to high-school norms, where men could "be men" but really be boys, and gain status through cruel dominance plays without bearing any real-life responsibilities.

But we know that while Trump may have found found a fan base in the white working class, he did better among wealthier Americans than among poorer ones. Many of his supporters aren't the folks who fell through the cracks -- they're the relatively comfortable neighbors of the downtrodden. And some are just plain old-fashioned suburban Republicans.

I remember high school. It wasn't just that the jocks wanted status and all the good stuff that comes with it -- they were incensed when uncool people were happy at all, or got any attention, even niche attention. Football was important enough that the team was seen as the embodiment of the school, but that wasn't enough glory -- if the drama weirdos put on a play once or twice a year, the jocks would tear the posters down, hating the fact that people who didn't work as hard as they did to avoid uncoolness could possibly have a little enjoyment, even if only our parents showed up to watch the plays.

The GOP is like that now. If you're a suburban white flag-waver, even if you have a nice life, it angers you that people who aren't like you -- non-whites, non-straights, liberals, feminist women, non-Fox journalists, people who enjoy non-meat-and-potatoes culture -- are also thriving. Even if you've had all the pie you want, it's infuriating that such vermin get any pie. And if they start asserting themselves, well, that's just flat-out intolerable.

That's one of our two major political parties right now: a party whose members are furious at having to share any of the good stuff with anyone they find distasteful.