Read on Twitter
One interesting feature of the DC GOP response to Hawley is that it illuminates the hierarchy of policy on the right. 1/ https://twitter.com/zaidjilani/status/1345121944547504129
The GOP allows all kind of dissent on cultural issues (see the massive deference given to pro-abortion Rs like Collins & Murkowksi). But diverge from the GOP on economic policy and the freak out is real. 2/
Same with challenging the neoconservative framing on defense policy. The same people trashing Hawley for being fiscally irresponsible with his push for $2k checks also tell Rand Paul he’s a crazy lunatic for trying to cut the foreign aid and defense budgets. 3/
The fusionist coalition was designed to be a partnership of interests between laissez-faire economics, defense hawks, and cultural conservatives. But the former two have triumphed on the right, to the detriment of the latter. 4/
It may work nicely for the professional GOP in DC, but increasingly it’s distancing the professional party from its base, which tends to be more culturally conservative. 5/
Hawley, and Trump, for that matter, waded right into the culture wars and it has made the professional GOP class distinctly uncomfortable. How and whether they embrace the approach or not is an area that will define the party in 2024. In my view, anyway. 6/
