RECOMMENDED READING
For almost four decades, the conservative movement was defined by one man, Ronald Reagan, and his movement, the Reagan Revolution.
Reagan was an unlikely revolutionary figure, a modestly successful actor with a self-effacing style and no intellectual pretensions. Yet he personally made the Republican Party into a conservative party, and his legacy inspired the movementâs leaders, animated its policy debates and stirred its votersâ emotions long after he left the scene.
Then four years ago, it all changed…
âI see myself as engaged in the project of post-Trumpism,â [American Compass’s Oren Cass] says. In that post-Trump era, he argues, conservatives must move beyond their instinct that market forces and a light government hand automatically offer the best answers. âWhat we call conservative economic policy isnât actually small-c conservative in its orientation,â he says. âItâs libertarian economic policy.â
Mr. Cass argues that free markets donât allocate resources well across all sectors of an economy. Specifically, markets leave some important sectorsâincluding manufacturingâwithout sufficient investment. âManufacturing provides particularly well-paying, stable employmentâespecially for men with less formal education,â he said in remarks last year. âManufacturing also tends to deliver faster productivity growth, because its processes are susceptible to technological advances that complement labor and increase output.â
Thus, Mr. Cass argues, government should have policies that actively favor the expansion of manufacturing, including funding more research that can help manufacturing companies; giving engineering majors in colleges more government aid than, say, English majors; putting a âbiasâ in the tax code to help manufacturers; reducingâto nearly zero if necessaryâthe number of visas given to Chinese students until China changes policies that harm American companies; and requiring U.S.-made components in key products. âIn the real world as we find it, America has no choice but to adopt an industrial policy, and we will be better for it,â Mr. Cass said.
Recommended Reading
Why the Rightâs Principled Populists Will Lose
In a feature on our What Happened: The Trump Presidency in Review collection, Eric Levitz notes that “American Compass represents the most intellectually honest tendency within the anti-Establishment right.”
Tracing the Path of the Modern GOP, From Reagan to Trump
The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib and American Compassâs Oren Cass discuss future paths for the GOP.
Can the GOP Become a Real Working-Class Party?
The drama in the House of Representatives that ended on Jan. 7 with the late-night election of Kevin McCarthy as speaker after four days and 15 ballots revealed a Republican Read more…