But since 2016, following the election of the heterodox Donald Trump as both Republican Party standard-bearer and, subsequently, U.S. president, conservatives and Republicans have taken to debating amongst themselves whether post-World War II American conservatism, as initially theorized, retains an enduring relevance. Perhaps, some argue, a new public policy program is required to meet today’s unique challenges. These debates are ubiquitous—and often contentious.
This week, R.R. Reno, editor of First Things, debates Charles C.W. Cooke, editor of National Review Online, on whether the Trump presidency has meaningfully altered the course of American conservatism and its leading political vehicle, the Republican Party. We hope you enjoy the exchange.
Josh Hammer is Newsweek opinion editor, a syndicated columnist and a research fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation.
Insofar as it represents anything more than a post hoc rationalization for President Donald Trump’s caprice, the postmortem for the pre-2015 Republican Party reads as follows. By the 1980s, a set of serious problems had arrived in the United States. Thankfully, President Ronald Reagan and his fellow travelers had good answers to these problems and, by and large, they managed to solve them. But, having done so, the Republican Party and its friends within the institutionalized conservative movement failed to move on. Instead, they decided that the platform of 1980 was immutably true and necessary, and that it was applicable to all places and all times. And so, in 2015, the party rebelled and nominated a politician who saw things differently. That politician, Donald Trump, managed to win the nomination, ascend to the presidency and recast the movement in his image. These changes are likely to be permanent. R.I.P., Reagan. Long live Trump! Amen.
