Trumpism: A Post-Mortem

This is a good summary

National Review:

“Depending on your point of view, Donald Trump’s presidency either promised or threatened to be a hostile takeover of the Republican Party by the ghost of Pat Buchanan. Although he often hedged in other directions, the thrust of Donald Trump’s critique of previous Republican orthodoxy focused on trade, immigration, and foreign policy. It held that the Republican Party was wedded to an abstract commitment to free trade that cut against the actual interests of the American people and their government. It accused the Republican Party of indulging a utopian foreign policy and proposed to end America’s endless wars.  …”

Trump moved the Overton Window.

At least in spirit and rhetoric, the GOP can appear and sound protectionist on trade, nationalist on foreign policy and restrictionist on immigration. This is what Greg Johnson calls metapolitics. Reality can be a lot messier and low information voters won’t catch the difference.

Will this carry over into the post-Blumpf era? I tend to doubt it for two reasons. The first reason is that the ideological and demographic core of Trumpism, which was the Alt-Right, bitterly departed the GOP in the 2020 election. These people are ethnocentric White men who are Independents, non-traditional voters and populists and nationalists in their politics. They are more likely to be college educated and live in the suburbs. The second reason is that Trump himself who was the star of his coalition is leaving and no one else in the GOP is capable of making it work. Trump retained massive loyalty among people who aren’t ideologues and traditional Republicans and who were not as up to speed about politics.

What are they going to do? Are they going to soup up Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz now with Trumpian rhetoric? Is Josh Hawley going to run in the Trump lane in 2024? Donald Trump was a marketing genius who conned us back in 2016. No one else is similarly capable of pulling a fast one.

Note: BTW, the Never Trumpers failed. Trump won more conservatives and Republicans than he did in 2016.