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LIVE NOW: What Now? A Conversation On Where Conservatives Go After the Trump Presidency
Co-hosted with @WSJ and featuring @GeraldFSeib, @oren_cass & @GeorgeWill
Tune in: https://www.wsj.com/live-qa/wsj-live-what-now-where-conservatives-go-after-the-trump-presidency/2480856C-535D-4B05-B4A4-5683D01A6709
Co-hosted with @WSJ and featuring @GeraldFSeib, @oren_cass & @GeorgeWill
Tune in: https://www.wsj.com/live-qa/wsj-live-what-now-where-conservatives-go-after-the-trump-presidency/2480856C-535D-4B05-B4A4-5683D01A6709
. @oren_cass begins by noting that 2 groups are vying to define what happens post-Trump. The "pre-Trumpists" hope to go back to the tax cuts & deregulation agenda. The "post-Trumpists" want to learn from recent years and remember what conservatism means: It's not just tax cuts.
. @GeorgeWill says it's key to say that "conservatives are not what Trump was" and get back to the debate that was interrupted four years ago.
"Free trade has casualties. Freedom has casualties," says @GeorgeWill. The question is what you do with the people who are "casualties" here. We need to encourage not just social mobility but geographic mobility, he argues.
Moving to opportunity is of course part of the American story, but being able to stay where you are, with your extended family, is something that conservatives should celebrate, says @oren_cass
. @oren_cass: Industrial policy has deep roots in American tradition. The idea that government has a role in fostering in national economic growth has been embraced in various ways from the Founding to the Reagan Administration.
Industrial policy is inevitably government picking winners and losers, says @GeorgeWill. "It doesn't give rise to crony capitalism—it is from the start crony capitalism."
"Conservatism is not populism," says @GeorgeWill.
It's critical that we listen to the sentiments of the people, argues @oren_cass. While economic growth is important, it's not the only thing that's important and we shouldn't trade everything for it.
It's critical that we listen to the sentiments of the people, argues @oren_cass. While economic growth is important, it's not the only thing that's important and we shouldn't trade everything for it.
. @GeorgeWill says that the things he'd keep from the Trump era are only the things that Trump took from GOP handbook: cutting the corporate tax rate, filling judicial appointments with Federalist Society suggestions, etc.
. @oren_cass has a few examples of "good populism" he'd keep around: changing the U.S. relationship with China, and rethinking our approach to higher education by opening more non-college pathways.
"Free trade has done more human good in terms of reducing pain and suffering in the last 40 years than any other policy that humans have experimented with in the last 10,000 years," says @GeorgeWill
On free trade and immigration, much of what we call "conservative" is actually libertarian, says @oren_cass. The actual conservative approach to these questions is to look at these specific questions and ask where government policy can play a role.
Why is the establishment so disconnected from much of America?
We're a function of the bubbles we live in, says @oren_cass. We have an economy and a culture that is increasingly bifurcated along educational and social lines. It takes work to bridge those gaps.
We're a function of the bubbles we live in, says @oren_cass. We have an economy and a culture that is increasingly bifurcated along educational and social lines. It takes work to bridge those gaps.
. @GeorgeWill worries about "creating another entitlement": the entitlement of preserving a certain way of life, a neighborhood, and suggests that this would cause an unacceptable growth in government's role.
How can the GOP appeal to a broader base of voters? @oren_cass argues that the key is to put forward policies that actually address their concerns: economic issues and labor in particular. Focus less on identity politics, more on what voters actually want.
That's a wrap! Thank you for joining us for an excellent conversation.
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