The GOP’s road back to power

Andrew Sullivan

“The GOP is flubbing one of its biggest political opportunities in years,” said Andrew Sullivan. In the U.K. and other Western countries, conservative parties are winning elections by combining populist economic policies with a strong defense of traditional values against a “radical left assault.” Instead, Republicans are aligning themselves with the “broadly toxic” figure of Donald Trump. To win back voters Trump alienated and Democrats are turning off with wokeism, Republicans should go “left on economics and right on culture.” On economics, that means limiting the power of monopolistic corporations and “spreading the wealth” to the working class. On culture, it means affirming love of our flawed but idealistic country, enforcing the nation’s borders “with firmness and compassion,” and embracing “color-blind policies on race” rather than Democrats’ demands for racial “equity.” Even now, the GOP stands poised to take back the House in 2022, and could claim the Senate too, and the White House in 2024, if it chooses leaders “less toxic to suburban moderates” than Trump and his acolytes. A Republican Party that stood for “hard work, traditional values, and individual opportunities” would be very popular—and could create “a genuine realignment.”