The Republican Party is not breaking up with conservatives. It’s actually starting a reformation back to an older conservative tradition.
This week, the Republican Party officially nominated former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance for President and Vice President. The Republican National Convention was the most unified and inspirational conventions in recent years. The Trump-Vance ticket is also one of the most conservative to be nominated by the GOP. However, some free-market conservatives and libertarians are concerned that the Trump-Vance ticket means a retreat from the “Ronald Reagan-style” fiscal conservatism. Does the Trump-Vance ticket represent the end of free-market conservatism?
In the aftermath of President Trump’s announcement of Senator Vance as his Vice President, commentary started to emerge arguing that this signaled “a repudiation of free-market conservatism.” Jennifer Tiedemann, executive editor of Discourse, wrote that “the GOP-conservative breakup is officially complete.” “For more traditional GOPers that have felt bereft of a political home for some time now, it is less likely than ever that they’ll be able to come back to the party of Ronald Reagan,” argues Tiedemann.
Many of these critics were shocked and angry when President Trump invited Sean O’Brien, the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to address the Republican National Convention. President Trump, Senator Vance, and other Republicans such as Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) are supporters of a pro-labor conservatism.
The 2024 platform also reflects President Trump’s America First policy agenda. “Make America Great Again!” is the 2024 Republican Party platform, which reflects the national conservatism of President Trump. The platform is dedicated to the “forgotten men and women of America,” and it is a call for a return to common sense. The “preamble” of the platform outlines some of the serious issues confronting the nation:
But now we are a Nation in SERIOUS DECLINE. Our future, our identity, and our very way of life are under threat like never before. Today we must once again call upon the same American Spirit that led us to prevail through every challenge of the past if we are going to lead our Nation to a brighter future.
For decades, our politicians sold our jobs and livelihoods to the highest bidders overseas with unfair Trade Deals and a blind faith in the siren song of globalism. They insulated themselves from criticism and the consequences of their own bad actions, allowing our Borders to be overrun, our cities to be overtaken by crime, our System of Justice to be weaponized, and our young people to develop a sense of hopelessness and despair. They rejected our History and our Values. Quite simply, they did everything in their power to destroy our Country.
The platform continues the policy themes that President Trump campaigned on in 2016.
Since 2016, President Trump has changed both the direction of the Republican Party and the conservative movement.
Watching the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week it does not appear that many of the delegates or a majority of the GOP would agree with the view of critics of the America First agenda. Tiedemann and other free-market conservative and libertarians are alarmed about what they considered the growing influence of national conservatism within the Republican Party and the conservative movement.
Tiedemann described Senator Vance as not only being philosophically aligned with President Trump, but he is also the “darling of America First Republicans.” Specifically, the America First agenda or national conservatism centers on some specific policy goals which include limiting immigration and securing the border, supporting protective tariffs to protect manufacturing and workers, and a restrained foreign policy. This includes questioning sending endless taxpayer dollars to Ukraine and the reckless expansion of NATO.
From the perspective of the free-market conservatives, the policy views on immigration and tariffs by national conservatives represent the greatest “sin.” Most Republicans will agree that the border must be controlled and secured, but the debate then shifts toward to immigration levels and what impact it has on the economy. Many free-market conservatives and libertarians favor liberal immigration laws and tend to view the issue as jobs and economic development program.
Senator Vance not only believes in securing the border, but unrestricted immigration has greater consequences. In a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing, Senator Vance “highlighted the causal role of immigration in the further tightening of the housing market, labor market, and the hindering of American wage growth.”
Immigration has a cost, not just in terms of its impact on security and culture, but also on the economy. Illegal and legal immigration impacts wages and jobs, and it has a substantial impact on the cost of social services. As Senator Vance stated:
“If we say we have a really tight labor market and we say that there are more than one job openings per worker, there are two ways you could plausibly solve that, probably more than that, but two obvious ways you can plausibly solve that.
“One is through a new influx of workers via the immigration system. Another way is by raising wages and bringing some of the workers that are on the sidelines. I think specifically of the 7 million prime age men that have dropped out of the labor force. Why isn’t that more the focus of policy makers rather than – you see labor shortage, rather than bringing in a large number of new immigrants, why not try to boost wages in a way that brings some of those workers off the sidelines?”
Protectionism is another issue of concern. President Trump’s administration was the first administration to seriously address the loss of manufacturing as a result of free trade agreements and globalization. In addition, President Trump was the first to directly challenge China. Massive trade deficits and the loss of manufacturing not only led the nation to be dependent upon foreign, and often hostile, sources for necessities, but it also depleted the middle class and ruined many communities.
Senator Hawley noted how elites, even in the Republican Party, contributed to this problem. “They have forged trade deals that led directly to the hemorrhaging of 4 million good jobs to China. They have watched whole towns fall into decrepitude, and an entire generation of working men falter. In a word, they put money before people. Politicians that claimed to stand for morality instead stood for greed,” stated Senator Hawley.
President Trump and Senator Vance support protectionism and measures that protect and encourage manufacturing and workers. Although many free marketers will consider this to be a “cardinal sin” it is actually based on the traditions of American conservatism. President Trump and Senator Vance are not discovering a new tradition, but actually rediscovering an older conservative tradition. The Republican Party, with its heritage from the Federalists and Whigs, from Presidents Abraham Lincoln through Herbert Hoover supported the policy of protectionism. Plus, protective tariffs were a pillar of Republican platforms and were a key pillar of economic policy, which protected manufacturing, agriculture, and workers.
In a recent editorial The Wall Street Journal argued that if the former President wins in November his “White House will be an almost daily jump ball between free-market advisers and the new GOP statists and protectionists.” “A second Trump term promises to be better than what Bidenomics has wrought, but it isn’t risk-free,” argues The Wall Street Journal.
It should be noted that not every free-market conservative is worried or pessimistic about the Trum-Vance ticket. Larry Kudlow, who served as President Trump’s Director of Economic Council, describes the 2024 Republican Party platform as being both optimistic and pro-growth. The platform calls for, and President Trump is campaigning on, making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and further regulatory reforms, along with other pro-growth tax reforms. This also includes renewing a pro-energy policy and ending electric vehicle mandates.
“Under Mr. Trump, the G.O.P. has moved away from the Reaganite triad of religious conservatism, free-market capitalism and hawkish internationalism,” wrote Matthew Continetti. This is not entirely accurate. Critics of President Trump and national conservatism tend to remember the Republican Party with “rose colored glasses.”
Conservatives were able to win elections during these years but lost many battles. This is especially true in terms of our culture. Pat Buchanan, who served as an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and a columnist, ran for the presidency three times on a platform similar to that of President Trump. Buchanan was prophetic about the cultural war, the impact of unlimited immigration, the devastating consequences of free-trade, and the hawkish foreign policy that led to endless wars for “democracy.”
Finally, critics will blame President Trump for not being a fiscal conservative. This is a fair argument, but it is a charge that can be applied to past Republican administrations. Republicans have failed at being the party of limited government. Past “free market” Republican administrations were not successful in limiting government. Plus, it can be argued that many of these Republicans helped create many of todays problems by supporting liberal immigration and trade policies, and the neoconservative foreign policies.
One hundred years ago the Republican Party met in Cleveland, Ohio to nominate President Calvin Coolidge and Charles G. Dawes. Coolidge would go on to win the 1924 presidential election in a landslide. Coolidge, just as with President Warren G. Harding and other Republicans of his era, supported issues similar to President Trump and Senator Vance. This included limiting immigration and protectionism.
The 2024 Trump-Vance ticket is somewhat similar to the 1924 Coolidge-Dawes ticket. The 1924 platform also supported protective tariffs to benefit manufacturing and workers and it supported limiting immigration. It also called for a restrained foreign policy. Coolidge even borrowed the campaign slogan of former President William McKinley the “full dinner pail,” which referred to the supporting workers and high wages.
The Trump-Vance ticket reflects an older conservative tradition. Going forward, if Republicans win both the presidency and a majority in Congress, the principles of Coolidge can serve as an example. The most difficult challenge for Republicans will be to address spending. This will be difficult because in the post New Deal era the federal government continues to increase and it will take not only a commitment to fiscal conservatism, but support from the American people.
The Republican Party is not breaking up with conservatives. It is changing course away from Bush, McCain, Romney “free market” and neoconservative model of governing. The Republican Party is also embracing blue collar workers instead of corporate elites. This is not a betrayal of conservatism, but it is actually starting a reformation back to an older conservative tradition.
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