by John M. Grondelski, All News Pipeline:
There’s a rearguard motion afoot in some conservative quarters grousing about the Republican National Convention underway in Milwaukee. The objection: the 2024 Republican Party is failing conservatism.
What?
National Review carries a piece by Natan Ehrenreich about how some conservatives are in a tizzy because of the Vance vice presidential nomination. As these Chicken Littles put it, “fusionism, Reaganism, conservatism — whatever you want to call it — is dead.”
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
To his credit, Ehrenreich admits that many of these simplifications are straw men. But let’s dig deeper into the claims.
The fact that these “conservatives” can’t figure out what has died — “fusionism, Reaganism, conservatism” — suggests they really can’t identify the content of any of them…but that whatever passed away was what they liked.
What they want is “fusionism.” Fusionism was the term Bill Buckley and the National Review crowd gave to their marriage of convenience between social and fiscal conservatives. In the name of cobbling together a critical mass of potential winners, social and fiscal conservatives were supposed to cooperate to gain power.
Let’s be honest. In that arrangement, fiscal conservatives usually came out on top, and social conservatives often came away with nothing. There was always time to legislate another capital gains tax cut. There was never time to legislate pro-family policies.
While social conservatives were faithful to the arranged marriage, often acting like old-style spouses deferring to their fiscal conservative partners, those fiscal conservatives were not the most faithful. Truth be told, once the fiscal conservatives got what they wanted, like a tax cut, they usually rolled over and were snoring faster than you could say “no flag-burning amendment.”
Social conservatives always went to the back of the bus. What worries fiscal conservatives about today’s Republican party is that they’re going to find out what it feels like riding on the rumble seat.
Donald Trump’s refashioning of the Republican party finally brought middle- and working-class Americans in without consigning them to the back of the bus. Trump and J.D. Vance envision a Republican party that works for American workers and the American middle class that is the bulk of social and economic stabilization.
It’s about time. In fact, it’s more than 50 years overdue.
Read More @ AllNewsPipeline.com
