The following is written for my fellow travelers who believe that Reaganite Fusionism, the existing Republican Party coalition, and the contours of America’s political debate writ large have reached a point of severely diminishing returns. If you believe the Republican Party needs either simply Reaganomics with more cowbell or to triple-down on the My Pillow Guy, this post may not be for you.
I write not to convince you that a realignment is in order, but rather to describe what a constructive realignment might look like.
Being a Republican, I bring a special eye to the positioning of the GOP. As such, my criteria for the realignment are as follows:
Politically Feasible: What positioning could the GOP realistically move toward adopting, based on existing philosophy, demographics, and issue stances?
Politically Constructive: What positioning would serve both the interests of current Republican Party members and the interests of the nation as a whole?
Politically Effective: What positioning would empower GOP candidates to win elections more consistently than they do already?
Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear…
Republicans | Democrats
Right | Left
Suggestions for the Next GOP | Where This Would Leave the Dems
Ideology:
Republicanism | Progressivism
Empowered Self-Government | Rule by Expert Elites
The government gives you power to solve problems | The government takes your power so it can solve problems
Institutional Power:
Subsidiarity | Centralization
Decentralized Decision Making | Centralized Decision Making
Distributed Power | Concentrated Power
Bottom-Up | Top-Down
Reforming & Creating Institutions | Buttressing Institutions
Hyper-Local | National Issues Focused
American Identity:
Interracial Americanism | Multiculturalism
Predominantly Positive-Sum | Predominantly Zero-Sum
Encourages Common Purpose | Lambastes Common Purpose
Appreciates Cultural Variety | Rewards Unending Separatism
Values Citizenship | Devalues Citizenship
Concrete QoL Gains to Minority Groups | Highly Symbolic Social Advances
Technology:
Bioconservatism | Techno-Progressivism
Offline | Terminally Online
Face-to-Face | Digital
Pro-Human | Transhumanism
Political Economy:
Developmentalism | Globalized Neoliberalism
Working-Class | Ivy-League PMC
Losers of Globalization | Winners of Globalization
Non-College Educated | College-Biased
Rural | Cosmopolitan
Heartland | Coastal
Culture:
Traditionalism | Expressive Individualism
Religious | Secular
Virtue + Character | Neoliberal Merit
Pragmatic | Revolutionary
Historical | Presentist
Modernity & Postmodernity-Skeptical | Postmodern
Families:
Family-Biased | Singleness-Biased
Makes Life Easier for Families | Makes Life Easier for Singles
Natalist | Functionally Antinatalist
Focus on Men’s Issues | Focus on Women’s Issues
Supports Healthy Masculinity | Fights Toxic Masculinity
Discourse Norms:
Honesty + Respect | Political Correctness
Dialogue | Cancel Culture
Trusts People to Figure Out Good Manners | Elitist Language Policing
Free Speech Protections | State-Enforced Censorship
Universally Respectful | Selectively Respectful
Political Legitimacy:
Constitutional Order | Abstract Democracy
Exemplary Thinkers
Historic Thinkers to Learn From
John Adams, Wendell Berry, Edmund Burke, James Burnham, Catholic Social Teaching, G.K. Chesterton, Benjamin Disraeli, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Byung-Chul Han, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr., Indigenous Knowledge, Ibn Khaldun, Russell Kirk, Abraham Kuyper, Christopher Lasch, Abraham Lincoln, Jacques Maritain, Michael Oakeshott, Neil Postman, Robert Putnam, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Michael Sandel, James C. Scott, Adam Smith, Booker T. Washington, Malcolm X
Commentary To Follow
Danielle Allen, American Solidarity Party, Marc Andreessen, The ADOS Movement (Yvette Carnell, Sandy Darity, Antonio Moore, Irami Osei-Frimpong), American Affairs Journal, American Compass, Andrew Bacevich, Oren Cass, Dave Chappelle, Adam B. Coleman, Tyler Cowen, Patrick Deneen, Ron DeSantis, Ross Douthat, Saagar Enjeti, Niall Ferguson, Front Porch Republic, Samuel Goldman, Paul Graham, John Gray, Tanner Greer, Joe Henrich, Julius Krein, Yuval Levin, Michael Lind, Brink Lindsey, Gabor Maté, Mariana Mazzucato, Iain McGilchrist, Elon Musk, The New Atlantis, Niskanen Center, Steven Pinker, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, Andy Smarick, Alex Tabarrok, Tablet Magazine, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Jean Twenge, Brad Wilcox
The above is speculative and suggestive, not necessarily a full-on endorsement. I wouldn’t line up with all the policies the right-wing coalition above may imply, and whether the right-leaning stances I outline above do any good would depend heavily on how they are executed. Mostly, I see the stances in the “GOP/Right” column as a buffet from which the next center-right can pick, choose, and see what works.
What I would firmly suggest, however, is that for the GOP to remain constituted almost exclusively of white conservatives over the age of 50, held together by superficial cultural grievances and corporate tax cuts, is neither politically effective nor politically constructive. To those interested in a more working-class-friendly GOP, I would suggest the next natural step is reaching across to the many Black and Hispanic working-class communities tired of upscale Democrat coastal elitism.
While I have presented the above as a right-versus-left dichotomy, I don’t imagine a healthy center-right would be 100% against all ideas that come from the other side: sometimes technological progress is good for human flourishing, sometimes policies need to be centralized. The above isn’t so much about being anti- anything as it is about establishing the key questions of our present age and having better debates around them. There will need to be give and take, compromise, and things will not always be black-and-white.