Americans had reason to fear for the future even before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. One hopes this enormity, together with respect for its innocent victims, will urge elected leaders to keep the risk of instability and political violence front of mind. In particular, campaigns need to talk less about the evil of their opponents and think harder about policy.
Policy did indeed come up at the Republican Party’s national convention this week, but not in a good way. Energized by the weekend’s outrage, Republicans celebrated both a new policy platform and the choice of Senator JD Vance as the former president’s running mate. The choices go together all too well.
Republicans are shifting toward a new kind of inward-looking big-government conservatism — “national conservatism,” as its advocates prefer. Unless something changes, this benighted program’s electoral prospects look good. Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party stood for market liberalism and strong national defense.
The Trump administration lacked such guiding principles, and relied instead on the president’s certainty that he knew best. He settled on protectionism, unfunded tax cuts with enormous deficits, chauvinistic strutting and a carelessly transactional approach to U.S.
alliances. To its shame, the old Republican Party looked on impotently, hoping this would pass. It didn’t, and the emerging new party has no reservations.
The choice of Vance for vice president underlines the point. So.