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<\/a><\/p>\nThe question for Republicans and conservatives in general is not just whether to keep Donald Trump as their spokesman-in-exile.\u00a0 It\u2019s whether to keep pursuing the conservative populism that he embodied or to go back to more traditional establishment-oriented conservatism.<\/p>\n
It seems apparent that conservatism is in a bad way right now, even though that movement was still able to attract over 74 million votes.<\/a>\u00a0 Republicans\u00a0lost the presidency, the House, and the Senate.\u00a0 More than that, the conservative infrastructure seems to be shaken.\u00a0\u00a0The NRA is bankrupt.<\/a>\u00a0 Talk radio, which popularized conservative ideas to a mass audience, is reeling, with\u00a0Rush Limbaugh being seriously ill and\u00a0the Cumulus radio network that operates much of conservative talk radio clamping down on their hosts.\u00a0 The big conservative donors\u00a0Sheldon Adelman and David Koch are dead, with his brother Charles planning to limit political donations,<\/a> and corporate donors are pulling away from the conservative brand.<\/p>\n So political conservatives are trying to regroup and plan a way forward.\u00a0 Some blame Trump for the Republicans\u2019 woes, while others still see him as the future of the party.\u00a0 If he is, some say\u2013including those who want to run for president themselves\u2013that will block the new leadership that the party needs.\u00a0 They say further that a former president who was defeated and then runs again has a very poor chance of winning, no matter how popular he is (see, for example, what happened to Teddy Roosevelt<\/a>).<\/p>\n But even if Trump\u2019s moment in history is over, he has had a profound impact on the nature of contemporary conservatism and what Republicans stand for.\u00a0 \u00a0His brand of populism has given the Republicans, which used to be the party of big business and the \u201crich,\u201d a new working class base.<\/p>\n David Marcus says that even the most die-hard Trump supporters will generally admit that he has his personal faults.\u00a0 But what they support the most are Trump\u2019s\u00a0policies<\/em>.\u00a0 Marcus summarizes them<\/a> as\u00a0\u201cglobal trade [with protectionist policies], aggressive opposition to China, ending foreign wars, growing American manufacturing, securing the border, and using government to fight the culture wars.\u201d\u00a0 He recommends that Republicans keep a focus on these issues with or without Trump\u2019s active involvement.\u00a0 It may be that a less polarizing figure who nevertheless holds to these positions might hold on to those 74 million voters, plus add a few more to put conservatives back into power again.<\/p>\n A few comments about that list of policies:\u00a0 First, they are quite popular with the public, and rightly so.<\/p>\n Second, note how different these positions are from those of traditional Republicans, who used to support free-market capitalism at all costs, advocated strong national defense and an aggressive foreign policy, embraced a global economy including easy immigration to give businesses cheap labor, and urged a more or less libertarian approach to cultural issues.\u00a0 They were also big on fiscal responsibility, eliminating the national debt, and cutting government spending.<\/p>\n Third, this policy list reminds me of what Democrats used<\/em> to be for.\u00a0 And still are when it comes to using government to fight the culture wars, only on the other side from the way conservatives want it to go.\u00a0 But as Democrats become the new party of the affluent, college-educated middle class and the big corporations, animated now by the new ideology of \u201cwoke capitalism,\u201d the Republicans should be happy to become the party of the working class of all races.<\/p>\n So, if the Republicans keep up their populism, is there to be no<\/em> political advocacy for less government spending?\u00a0 Or free market economics?\u00a0 Will Americans of both parties, in their commendable desire to stay out of foreign wars, withdraw into isolationism?<\/p>\n In the 1960s, the counterculture disdained what they called \u201cthe establishment.\u201d\u00a0 All of those traditional values, social responsibilities, and same-old habits were felt to inhibit the rising consciousness of the coming Age of Aquarius.\u00a0 But the conservatives of the day defended<\/em> the establishment.\u00a0 Your father works selflessly from nine-to-five to put food on the table, which you long-haired kids need to appreciate.\u00a0 Our military keeps this country free so that you can do your protests.\u00a0 The establishment is what keeps this country functioning.<\/p>\n But, alas, we are all hippies now.\u00a0 Yes, the establishment, in many ways, has become ineffective and corrupt.\u00a0 But doesn\u2019t something in this country, this culture, need to be \u201cestablished\u201d?\u00a0 Don\u2019t conservatives want to, you know, conserve<\/em> something?\u00a0 If so, what needs to be conserved and, indeed, established?<\/p>\n That\u2019s a conversation conservatives need to be having.\u00a0 It is not enough to just champion the \u201cpeople,\u201d as in mob rule or in the mass manipulations of demagogues.\u00a0 \u00a0What do the people need for a flourishing life?\u00a0 I think the people themselves, in a genuinely populist movement, want answers to that kind of question.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the dichotomy between populism and the establishment may be a false one.\u00a0 Perhaps conservatives could build a synthesis.\u00a0 (See, for example, this attempt<\/a> to find a golden mean between elitism and populism in a Madisonian republicanism.)<\/p>\n If they can, their political exile may be a short one.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Image by\u00a0Gerd Altmann<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The question for Republicans and conservatives in general is not just whether to keep Donald Trump as their spokesman-in-exile.\u00a0 It’s whether to keep pursuing the conservative populism that he embodied or to go back to more traditional establishment-oriented conservatism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":53368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19,36],"tags":[561,3881,10472,1761,1879],"class_list":["post-53089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-government","category-politics","tag-conservatism","tag-donald-trump","tag-establishment","tag-populism","tag-republican-party"],"yoast_head":"\n