Former President Donald Trump’s selection of U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate for vice president was not welcomed by all within the conservative movement.
Jennifer Tiedemann, executive editor of Discourse, wrote that “the GOP-conservative breakup is officially complete.” “For more traditional GOPers that have felt bereft of a political home for some time now, it is less likely than ever that they’ll be able to come back to the party of Ronald Reagan,” argues Tiedemann. To these critics, the selection of Vance signaled a “repudiation of free market conservatism.”
Whether one agrees with President Trump or not, he is a transformational political figure. Both President Trump and Senator Vance have broke away from Republican orthodoxy on several issues, most notably trade, immigration, and foreign policy. For decades, the Republican Party supported free trade and policies that encouraged globalization. Further, Republicans tended to embrace liberal immigration. The Republican Party was also viewed as a champion of business, especially corporations, while the Democrats championed labor.
Both political parties advocated for free trade and globalization. Whether it was NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, granting China Most Favored Nation Status, among other trade deals these all received bipartisan support. The free trade consensus ended with the election of President Trump in 2016.
During the campaign, President Trump not only was critical of trade agreements, but he called for the use of protective tariffs to rebalance trade and restore manufacturing. For many within the conservative movement, this was heresy and going against the “sacred free market.”
“For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost,” stated President Trump in his Inaugural Address. In reference to trade agreements, President Trump argued that “for many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry…” “One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind,” stated the president.
President Trump was accurate when he described the “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.” This was a direct consequence of free trade marked by decades of massive trade deficits. The loss of manufacturing not only decimated communities, but it hurt the middle class. As the COVID pandemic demonstrated, it has left the nation dangerously dependent on foreign nations not just for cheap consumer goods, but for necessities such as pharmaceuticals and even crucial components for our defense industry.
Prior to President Trump, only a few conservative Republicans argued against the free trade consensus. Most notably were Patrick J. Buchanan, former Senator Rick Santorum, who wrote Blue Collar Conservatives, former Representative Duncan Hunter, among others. All three were unsuccessful in their attempts at securing the Republican presidential nomination, but they were influential in appealing to blue-collar voters.
By emphasizing trade policy and the loss of manufacturing and the need to put “America First,” President Trump appealed to many blue-collar voters – many of whom were either Democrats or independents. In Ohio, J.D. Vance was elected to the United States Senate on a similar platform. Vance campaigned as a conservative and even prior to running for office had been critical of globalization, free trade and even libertarian ideology.
The economic nationalism of President Trump and Senator Vance is being described as the “New Right,” but there is nothing new about this philosophy. Patrick J. Buchanan wrote that “in leading Republicans away from globalism to economic nationalism, Trump is not writing a new gospel. He is leading a lost party away from a modernist heresy – back to the Old-Time Religion.”
With its heritage from Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists and Henry Clay and the Whigs, the Republican Party was the staunch defender of economic nationalism. This meant that the tariff was a pillar of Republican economic policy. From President Abraham Lincoln through President Herbert Hoover, the policy of protectionism was not only an important policy, but part of the party platform.
The policy of protection not only meant protecting the home market but protecting American labor and high wages. President William McKinley campaigned for the presidency using the slogan the “full dinner pail,” which was also used by President Calvin Coolidge. President Coolidge even credited “restrictive immigration,” a “tariff for protection,” and “economy of expenditure [limited government]” as policies that not only led to economic growth but benefited the worker. These are similar arguments that both President Trump and Senator Vance are making today.
The “New Right” that is critical of free trade and libertarianism is not new, rather it is a rediscovery of an older conservative tradition. The 2024 Republican Party Platform is a continuation of the same policy agenda that President Trump ran on in 2016. The platform is dedicated to “the forgotten men and women of America.”
Although trade policy and limiting immigration are important, President Trump and Senator Vance have outlined other pro-worker policies such as renewing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided tax relief for workers and created jobs. Further tax reform, including renewing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, will be just as important in creating an economy that benefits American workers.
Elites in both parties, the media, and even labor leaders are still perplexed on why so many blue-collar workers are supporting President Trump and those who support a similar policy agenda. President Trump spoke for many Americans when he stated: “Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.”
President Trump was correct. When corporations outsourced jobs or relocated to another country, policymakers in both parties did not seem to care. This was “creative destruction,” and although painful, the free market would be the cure. However, many Americans and their communities suffered as a result and did not recover.
“There was a time when Republicans knew that American strength depends squarely on American workers – and their way of life: family, neighborhood, church, union hall,” wrote Senator Josh Hawley in “The promise of pro-labor conservatism.”
Today, numerous Republicans at the state and national level are standing and fighting for pro-worker policies. Whether it is trying to restore manufacturing, limiting immigration, or fighting the extreme environmental agenda that is trying to cripple mining, coal, and other energy and natural resources related industries, many Republicans are championing American workers.
Worshipers of the free market fail to understand an important pillar of conservatism. “Conservatism is not about a set of formulas or ideological abstractions. The purpose of economic and political life is the survival and enhancement of a particular people and its culture,” wrote Darrell Dow in the American Mind.
This is what President Trump and Senator Vance are trying to accomplish.
