Mr. Lawler writes about redefining conservatism in light of the Trump phenomenon:
What too many Republicans have missed, in fact, is that lots of Americans have experienced this “progress” as loss of the secure safety nets that have cushioned them from being merely part of a meritocracy based on productivity. On the Republican side, the name given to these Americans is “Reagan Democrats.” That means those who vote Republican but aren’t particularly libertarian or all that defined by “religious identity politics.” For them, being conservative means conserving what they now have and maybe regaining what they’ve lost. That means being for unions, the existing entitlements, the bonds of citizenship (that have been eroded by “the coming apart” of middle-class America into two classes isolated in every way from each other), and the dignity of worthwhile work well done. There’s no doubt that there’s more than a touch of race-based resentment and nativism among Reagan Democrats these days, and it sure is troubling to see our country characterized by more racial hostility than anyone would have expected. But let’s face it: Republicans are terrible in acknowledging, much less addressing effectively, the one form of identity politics that was for so long sanctioned by our law.
Mr. Spialikos writes about everything wrong with the establishment.
If you could get the Republican senators, governors, and former cabinet members into a room without cameras, my strong suspicion is that 90 percent of them would agree on a federal agenda of entitlement cuts, high-earner tax cuts, and a comprehensive reform that includes such incredibly unpopular elements as increasing future low-skill immigration. The Republican Party leadership is cursed with a consensus among themselves that is not shared by either Republican voters or the general public.
That’s it, folks, & about the best stuff I’ve read lately. Let me throw in my own comments on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, nothing to do with politics…
Not sure why we need low skill immigration, especially in the face of entitlement cuts. That would move the great unwashed towards work or starve positions.
Yeah, low-skill immigration with a law centering on family reunification is about as clear a breach of promise to the American people, that they’re the American people & the governing class know it, as you can imagine, shy of civil war / oligarchic tyranny!