Rich Lowry: Trump Is a Populist, Not a Conservative

Rich Lowry has a new article in Politico Magazine in which he explains why National Review devoted an entire issue to attacking Donald Trump:

“Our basic argument about Trump is simple and unassailable: He is a populist, not a conservative. Conservatism has always had a populist element, but it has been tethered to conservatism’s animating causes of liberty, limited government and the Constitution. Trump inveighs against elites and tramples on political pieties, but these causes are afterthoughts to him, at best.”

Once again, Lowry has reiterated that Trump is a populist, not a conservative. For decades, conservatives have exploited and harnessed popular grievances, not as an end-in-itself, not because they really intend to do anything about those grievances, but solely to mine those grievances and transform them into votes to advance their own agenda. This is what all the dog-whistling and token gestures has really been about. This is a confession from the editor of National Review that conservatism is nothing more than a scam.