“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” seems to be the route to political success now sought be the new ascendant Right. ‘Twould seem that “fighting like the Left” does means adopting many of their positions, if not the same underlying reasons therefor. The lure of Populism and its promised shortcut to empowered transformation is an enticing one, and has clearly cause not only the Republican Party, but many people in the Conservative intellectual movement and conservative institutions to appropriate many positions and policies that the Left held and for which the old Right corrected them on (though most have not gone so far as to, for example, praise Josef Stalin. They have turned against all three legs of Reagan’s proverbial stool.
Probably the most prominent shift away from conservatism and sound economics has been the adoption of protectionism and antagonism towards “big business” in lieu of the free market and free trade under the rule of law. J.D. Vance, the GOP Vice-Presidential nominee has waxed poetically about tariffs while trying to ingratiate the GOP to the Democratic Party subsidiaries known as Unions. He’s even talked about getting rid of affordable appliances in praise of some lone toaster-maker. Not to be outdone, Trump has talked about restricting the import of food as part of this new panacea of slouching towards economic isolationism where prosperity lies behind a financial safe space. And in that safe space, if you don’t have good enough credit to earn 10% cap on what you borrow on your credit card, then you’re not going to be offered credit.
On foreign affairs, this new Right has outright stolen the Leftist “Blame America First” position. Therein, America is declared to be run by evil woke corporations who wage war for profit against innocent countries like Russia, whose actions portrayed as a defense against the perfidiousness of the woke and corrupt West. America, they believe, can safely retreat from the world because without America’s prodding, no other country would have reason to see us as their enemy since apparently that particular evil is a uniquely American one. We’ve even seen this blaming of America, zombie-Buchananism if you will, for blaming the U.S. and the U.K. for the Second World War!
But there’s still social issues that are in opposition to the Woke Left, right? Not so much. The Pro-Life issue has become something to sweep under the rug now that the transactional deal with what was left of the Religious Right getting the repeal of Roe v. Wade in return for their unwavering support. They got their forty pieces of silver and are now expected to go full Judas. Trump’s support for IVF funding put much of the GOP into a political bind and handing the Democrats an issue with witch to cudgel Congressional Republicans. That such funding would entail an expansion of Obamacare is ironic considering that Trump rose to power because the “GOP establishment” couldn’t muster the votes for an out right repeal of Obamacare. Trump was even a long time supporter of same-sex marriage.
The embrace of positions that were either Leftist or attributed to “the surrender caucus” goes beyond abortion and same-sex marriage. The embracing of crackpot Leftists like RFK, Jr. is just one sign of this apparent contrarianism with the Left that responds with a different position of the Left as an antithesis to their thesis. Even on the question of illegal and legal immigration, Trump is sounding like the older pre-Woke Democrat that he was, echoing the 1992 Democratic platform on illegal immigration while welcoming legal immigrants.
Reagan’s proverbial “three-legged stool” has been replaced with the one-legged stool of Populism… without the seat.
No wonder, then, that even amongst many of his supporters and cheerleaders there are qualms about the Leftward lurch of the Republican Party and “conservative” think tanks. Rare pleas to embrace a more conservative message of freedom and opportunity are dismissed in lieu of emotional catharsis.
We are now seeing the modern day Republican Party becoming, in many ways, more to the Left than the Democrats were within most people’s lifetime. A look at the Democrats’ own 1992 platform is either on par with the current GOP stances or even more conservative than said stances! With all that, quite a few things start sounding plausible to some.
The division is not between progressivism and conservatism, but between woke progressivism and trad progressivism on the Right. The American conservative tradition and heritage falls victim to the Leftist tactic of deconstructionism. This breaking down of the past is then followed by a reframing now being championed by this New Right and their “common good” conservatism progressivism. The rejection of America as an idea is part and parcel of this deconstructionism. By eliminating those distinct elements which sets America apart from the rest of the West, and Europe specifically, it allows them to easily substitute American ideals with European concepts and justify the imitation of European style nationalism which developed most significantly around the time of the 1848 Revolutions—despite that being a way of knowing from a foreign people in a foreign land during unshared history.
The Populism is derived froma concept of the people that is far more Rousseauesque than Lockean, and ultimately just as much of a fundamental transformation as what the Left desires and with much the same worldview framework and rhetorical sructure, abet with disagreement over who is the ruling oppressive elite and who are the oppressed masses.
So, do remind me again just who the “Uniparty” is?
