The conventional wisdom is that the Reagan coalition was an alliance of economic conservatives, national defense conservatives, and social conservatives. Some say that in this election the Reagan coalition is coming apart.
Joe Carter, though, who just finished a stint with the Huckabee campaign, challenges that tripartite classification of conservatives. He says that it might apply to the insular world of Washington think tanks and pundits. But he argues that in the heartland of America one finds few of those distinctions. A conservative there embraces all three of those positions. Reagan’s genius was in mobilizing ordinary Americans and turning their home-grown conservatism into a national movement. Reagan was in many ways a POPULIST, which is not some advocate of a liberal agenda but someone who is an advocate for the ordinary American. Mr. Carter maintains that Huckabee’s populism is very much in the tradition of Ronald Reagan.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In