|
The Trump Coalition Is Forming. Who Should Be in It?
On the Tech Right,
dissident Democrats, “principled conservatives,” and “reasonable centrists”
President Trump had a striking first week in the Oval
Office, with a blitz of executive orders reshaping the federal government
and exerting much-needed pressure on America’s governing institutions. But
beneath the headlines, what might be an even more important story is
unfolding. The GOP is establishing a new coalition, with various factions
jockeying for their place within the administration. The president and his
team need to be judicious in whom they elevate within this emerging
coalition—and whom they exclude. Trump’s coalition in his second presidency
is radically different than that of his first, and the difference holds
both promise and peril.”
My response: What I admire and love about Rufo is his sheer
intelligence and wisdom: as a journalist, he—he writes clearly and
simply--cuts through quickly and routinely, what is going on, and what we
should do about it.
Rufo warns Trump (whose conceitedness and easy success can
make him more mouthy and rash than he should be, damaging his own cause
which is our cause) to be judicious in whom they elevate within this
emerging coalition and whom they exclude. There is both promise and peril
at stake here.
Rufo: “In my judgment, all potential members of the
coalition should be evaluated based on two key criteria, or filters. The
first is whether they have skin in the game. The second is whether they
have a bias toward action, which will help accomplish the president’s goals
in the real world.”
My response: Yes, they should have skin in the game, and I
would argue that all Americans have skin in the game, whether they realize
it or not, or are politically engaged or not.
We need people to have a bias towards action, as Trump has,
so we can make America great again. Again, I worry about the good man Trump
being too rash, or dictatorial: we want to act carefully, deliberately, but
act so we do not start World War III, a worldwide trade war over tariffs,
that we lose the support of the American masses, nor does Trump need to
bring in RINOS and socialists that will weaken the counterrevolutionary
coalition, or sabotage it.
Rufo: “Two new constituencies easily meet this test: the
so-called Tech Right and the dissident Democrats. The leaders of the Tech
Right, such as Elon Musk, David Sacks, and Marc Andreessen, have taken on
personal and financial risk in supporting Trump. Had they failed, a
President Kamala Harris would have exacted retribution. They also risked
their reputations in famously progressive Silicon Valley by openly
endorsing Trump, who, only a few years before, was persona non grata in
their communities.
Likewise, all these Tech Right figures are action-oriented
and will help the president accomplish his goals. Musk has already
terminated hundreds of millions of dollars in needless federal contracts
through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Tech entrepreneur
Sacks has advanced the crypto and AI industries. And other lesser-known
figures in the Tech Right are helping to staff the administration in key
posts, where they will advance the president’s agenda. They bring a
technical and management expertise lacking in Trump’s first presidency; as
such, their presence will be a net positive, even if they demand certain
concessions from the president on, say, H-1B visas and high-skilled
immigration.
Dissident Democrats are another valuable constituency.
Figures such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard took immense
personal risk in endorsing Trump, burning their bridges not only with the
Democratic Party but also with most of their elite social circles. Whatever
disagreements one might have with them on policy, it’s clear that they are
joining the administration from a sense of mission and purpose, not simply
to collect another accolade or credential. They also offer value in
providing an off-ramp for Democratic voters who feel abandoned by the
party. These high-profile defectors model the kind of behavior Trump will
have to show to bring over moderate Democrats and others who had previously
shied away from the GOP.”
My response: Rufo seems correct here.
Rufo: “Two factions currently trying to establish positions
in the coalition should be rejected: the “principled conservatives” and the
“reasonable centrists.” The so-called principled conservatives, the latest
mutation of the NeverTrumpers, have tried to stake out a position as
arbiters of morality. Writers at the Bulwark browbeat the president from
what they consider a center-right perspective, and New York Times columnist
David French, who changed all his principles without explanation, uses the
simulacrum of those principles to support critical race theory and other
left-wing ideologies, supposedly from a conservative point of view.
These center-right figures should be rejected. They have no
skin in the game, and they show a bias toward the kind of interminable,
abstract debate that would hamper the Trump administration’s ability to
make progress. Elections are designed to settle broad questions facing the
American people; presidential administrations then implement these
conclusions. But if the principled conservatives had their way, we would
spend the next four years mired in lectures about how they agree with some
of the administration’s policy goals but disagree with how they are being
achieved. Such arguments are disingenuous; they are designed not to provide
moral clarification but to get the administration stuck in a morass. They
resemble the old Soviet disruption techniques of interminable meetings,
technical objections, and parliamentary ruses to reduce the effectiveness
of an infiltrated organization. The GOP should reject the principled
conservatives’ dubious status as moral arbiters and exclude them from any
coalition moving forward.”
My response: Here again Rufo demonstrates how sharp he is.
These never-Trumpers and RINOS hate Trump and conservative principles, and
they offer nothing to further the counterrevolution: their only aim as
wolves in sheep’s clothing is to undercut, even stall the counterrevolution
from within, and Rufo is onto them, and they should be excluded from the
coalition.
The objectives of the counterrevolution are simple, clear,
principled, and well-reasoned: we need not revisit them any longer but need
to implement our political and cultural reforms by striking while the iron
is hot.
Rufo: “The “reasonable centrists” should also be sidelined.
These are typically center-left Democrats who voted for Clinton, Biden, and
Harris but have minor heterodox positions on DEI or transgender ideology
that, in their view, entitle them to a position of authority over the GOP.
We can think of someone like TV talk show host Bill Maher in this way. Even
when such center-left Democrats claim to agree with the administration,
they always seem to oppose action. The “reasonable centrists” are, in fact,
not reasonable at all. They refuse to join the coalition, but, instead,
place themselves above it, dispensing wisdom from on high to both sides of
the political aisle.
The conservative movement should make its position clear.
Such “reasonable Democrats” should work on reforming their own party; until
they do so, they should refrain from lecturing the other party. If they
cannot align their votes or their concrete recommendations with President
Trump’s agenda, they should get out of the way.”
My response: We do not want Leftists like Bill Maher to
pretend to be principled and reasonable: as Rufo suggests, keep them out of
the coalition but invited them to reform Democrats and Leftists, converting
them (unlikely) into blue-dog Democrats of old.
R: “When the excitement of the past week’s executive orders
wears off and the administration gets into the grinding phase, these
coalitional questions will be more important than ever. The conservative
movement should resist an “all-are-welcome” policy because certain factions
can detract from the mission. In short: yes to the Tech Right and the
dissident Democrats; no to the principled conservatives and reasonable
centrists. Making such distinctions will maximize the second Trump
administration’s political potential and ensure that the right things get
done.”
My respotnse: We need the conservative coalition to hold: to
stick together to get the counterrevolution installed and completed, with
hostile Leftists not included in the coalition, and without Trump going off
the rails into war or authoritarianism.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment