I first became interested in public policy in the 1970s because of Ronald Reagan and his uplifting message about unleashing America’s economy by getting government out of the way.
There were plenty of establishment types inside the Republican Party, however, who did not want Reagan.
But that was not unexpected. It was part of a decades-long battle for the soul of the GOP. One that still continues today.
- Dewey vs. Taft
- Rockefeller vs. Goldwater
- Ford/Bush vs. Reagan
- Establishment vs Tea Party
That battle is more complicated today. Instead of big-government Republicans vs small-government Republicans, we now have to add Trump-style populists to the equation.
Unfortunately (at least for those of us with libertarian sympathies), this third group is somewhat similar to big-government Republicans with regards to economic policy.
That being said, Trump-style Republicans and establishment Republicans clearly are not allies, even though they both are okay with bigger government.
And that’s why I created a Venn Diagram to show how these three groups interact.
To expand on this concept, let’s look at an article Matthew Continetti wrote for Commentary about the rejuvenation of a big-government wing in the GOP.
Republicans haven’t issued a platform since 2016, and it shows. What the party stands for is no longer central to its identity. …the Republican Party’s newest “New Right”…believe that the GOP ought to be remade in Trump’s image. …the New Right…wants radically to revise the Right’s positions on…free markets… Most New Right writers…share one quality: They sound more like left-wing progressives than actual conservatives. …New Right thinkers affiliated with the journal American Affairs and the think tank American Compass…are part of an effort to move the GOP toward greater state intervention in the economy. Readers of American Affairs will find paeans to the Chinese authoritarian model, discussions of industrial policy, and jeremiads against Wall Street. …Sohrab Ahmari is a leading indicator of the New Right’s ultimate destination. …the New Deal is without fault, and the liberal economics writer and Harvard professor John Kenneth Galbraith is a forgotten genius. …It’s up to the rest of us to expose the New Right for what it truly is: …like its progressive twin, corrosive of the American tradition of liberty.
The author doesn’t even mention the opposition to genuine entitlement reform, which from my perspective arguably is the biggest flaw in Trumpie-type thinking.
I don’t know whether to characterize that as head-in-the-sand thinking or kick-the-can-down-the-road thinking, but it’s a recipe for giant future tax increases.
All of which is why I keep telling my conservative and Republican friends (at least the fiscally sensible ones) that they don’t have to choose between big-government Trumpism and big-government establishment Republicanism.
They can rally behind Reaganism. Or, for those who prefer an updated term, freedom conservatism.
P.S. I was right about Trump even before he became president.
