Trump shows downsides of conservative populism

Matt Purple

Before Ronald Reagan became president, conservatism in America had an elitist flavor. The right was seen as starched and buttoned-up. Its intellectuals were aristocrats like William F. Buckley and dandies like George F. Will.

But in recent years, conservatism has become gradually more populist. Reagan, with his appeal to blue-collar voters, became conservatism’s muse; talk radio became its medium.

Populist conservatism truly found its moment in 2009, when President Barack Obama and his monolithically Democratic Congress began cooking up a plan to reform the health care system. The voters responded, and the tea party was sent to Washington the following year.

Since then, conservative populism has been relentlessly attacked, mostly by self-satisfied leftists and spoiled Bush administration leftovers. And precisely because it was underestimated, the tea party has racked up many successes, including the abolishment of earmarks, shrewd gerrymandering, the expiration of the Export-Import Bank, and the sequester.

But there’s always been a tension at the core of the tea party. On one hand, you had something genuinely new: a coalition of independent and relatively libertarian activists who wanted to see government restrained. On the other hand, you had the more traditionally right-wing voices from Fox News and Radioland, who brought along a host of other concerns. Chief among them was immigration.

Why start a column with such an exhaustive history? Because it brings us to today and the ambulatory farce known as Donald Trump. Trump is a former Democratic sugar daddy who’s used eminent domain to bulldoze anyone who stands in the way of his garish casinocum-strip-club empire.

But he says mean things about Mexicans. Thus is my Facebook feed clogged with posts lauding his brazen honesty. If 2010 was conservative populism’s zenith, Trump’s ascendance feels an awful lot like its nadir.

The tea party has jagged edges like every other populism. Tea par- tyers can be myopic. They occasionally fall victim to charlatans and con men.

Donald Trump is all those downsides rolled together and stuffed in a suit.

Fortunately, I think Trump Fever will break. When it does, conservatives should work to inoculate themselves against future Trumps. Policy, not personality, should take precedence.

That means remembering the priorities of 2010 and 2011, many of which seem to have been demoted as of late. Obscene Republican budgets, like the one passed this year, should be met with fiercer resistance. Candidates who once supported Common Core should be knocked out of first place. Entitlement reform should be moved back to the front burner.

Conservatives should continue to fight on immigration, too, but in a way that acknowledges the millions of hardworking, tax-paying, Hispanic migrants who have made America their home. No more blather about rapists. If Mark Meckler, one of the earliest tea party activists, can find consensus with the pro-amnesty left, then surely the rest of us can be reasonable with our rhetoric.

The conservative base has done admirable work energizing the GOP. Which is why it can and must do better than Donald Trump.