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 movementās leaders, animated its policy debates and stirred its votersā emotions long after he left the scene.
Then four years ago, it all changed…
āI see myself as engaged in the project of post-Trumpism,ā [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. āWhat we call conservative economic policy isnāt actually small-c conservative in its orientation,ā he says. āItās libertarian economic policy.ā
Mr. Cass argues that free markets donāt allocate resources well across all sectors of an economy. Specifically, markets leave some important sectorsāincluding manufacturingāwithout sufficient investment. āManufacturing provides particularly well-paying, stable employmentāespecially for men with less formal education,ā he said in remarks last year. āManufacturing also tends to deliver faster productivity growth, because its processes are susceptible to technological advances that complement labor and increase output.ā
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 ābiasā in the tax code to help manufacturers; reducingāto nearly zero if necessaryāthe number of visas given to Chinese students until China changes policies that harm American companies; and requiring U.S.-made components in key products. āIn the real world as we find it, America has no choice but to adopt an industrial policy, and we will be better for it,ā Mr. Cass said.
Recommended Reading
Why the Rightās Principled Populists Will Lose
In a feature on ourĀ 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 Compassās Oren Cass discuss future paths for the GOP.
Reverse Class Psychology
Reagan convinced workers to care about business, but who will teach business owners that labor matters too?