The liberal-conservative tug of war for the GOP – The Spectator World

For the last thirty years, the Republican Party has been a battleground between two competing ideologies. One of these is fundamentally liberal, although it is packaged and sold under a variety of brand names: compassionate conservatism, neoconservatism, classical liberalism, and most misleadingly Reagan conservatism.

The other ideology is a rejection of modern liberalism and the post-Cold War elite consensus in American politics. It is skeptical of free trade, large-scale immigration and US involvement in foreign conflicts. Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump are the primary representatives of this view, which is often called populist or nationalist.

The two sides are not evenly matched. Liberal conservatism has until recently had a commanding advantage among the media and nonprofit institutions that shape Republican policy and rhetoric from the outside, and it had a dominant place within the party as well. Yet the lopsidedness of the fight only testifies to the strength of the populist idea, which survived and eventually prevailed. After nearly a quarter century of leadership by the Bush dynasty, John McCain and Mitt Romney, the Republican Party today is more Buchananite than it was when Buchanan raised his flag of rebellion in 1992.

via thespectator.com

The nationalists are right about what time it is. They support DeSantis mostly, which is correct. The liberals are theoretically right, but bizarrely act like progressives. The nationalists are playing into Putin’s hands, which is stupid. But they’re suspicious of the arms dealers, which is smart.