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Nearly four decades ago, U.S. President Ronald Reagan summed up the Republican mentality with his declaration: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” The Market Knows Best , rather than politicians, the more power the private sector has relative to the public sector, the better.
This is not the case today. Consider Vivek Ramaswamy, the leading conservative presidential contender in the recent Republican debates. Responding to former Vice President Mike Pence’s insistence that Americans (by implicit political party) do not need a new identity or new solutions, Ramaswamy snapped: “This is not morning in America. We are living in a dark moment, We have to face the facts…”.
Today, some Republicans are talking not just about market failures but about solutions. Consider Sohrab Ahmari, a conservative columnist who has supported Trump on and off, and whose recent book, Tyranny, Inc.: How private power is destroying American freedom—and what to do about itpraised by progressives.
Like the former president and other conservatives, Al-Ahmairi opposes the kind of “woke” capitalism that makes corporations the focus of social justice issues. But he also sounds like an active Marxist in his criticism of the way capital owners oppress labor. The questions he raises about what should and should not be prohibited in capitalism—for example, his opposition to the commercialization of reproduction through interventions such as paid surrogacy—are not that different from the moral limits of the markets he explores.Harvard professor Michael Sandel, a prominent critic of free market orthodoxy, writes in his book Money can’t buy you anything.
Linking the erosion of moral values to the explosion of consumerism in late capitalist society gives Republicans plenty of political hay. For example, former Trump U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer frequently criticized neoliberal trade policies (by which he meant the unrestricted flow of capital and goods to the cheapest and most profitable manufacturing regions) , “at the expense of our country’s future control and wealth.” Current consumption for our children and grandchildren – cheaper televisions and sneakers. This is crazy. ”
Once away from coastal power centers, this sentiment is simple common sense to most Americans. As the conservative think tank American Compass points out, middle-class Republicans and Democrats in America are often more interested in income and job growth than the value of their 401Ks. They are willing to sacrifice some career advancement in exchange for more family time, hold different views on abortion, and are less likely to view expensive, elite colleges as the best path to economic advancement.
You might say they are more interested in community, family and work than wealth. While “jobs, not wealth” is Biden’s policy slogan, it also harkens back to a less extreme version of capitalism that was common decades ago. At that time, the economies of many American communities were more diversified, focused on production and consumption, and power was less concentrated in specific industries. As unfettered markets and the power of the private sector increased, wealth inequality also decreased significantly.
This matters because it means that undermining trust may now become a more bipartisan issue. The idea that private sector “tyranny” — in the form of corporate disproportionate economic and political control — is threatening individual freedoms in the United States is being seen as a rallying point by conservatives and progressives alike.
Of course, conservatives remain conservative when it comes to more immigration and many social issues, including abortion. But even so, we’ve seen some moves to become more pragmatic (witness Republican primary challenger Nikki Haley’s call for a softer stance on abortion).
The takeaway here is that Republicans, like Democrats, have begun to see the next election — and indeed the next few elections — as likely to be more about economics and class issues than divisive social issues.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll end up electing a Republican presidential candidate who truly cares about working people. Remember, Donald Trump’s great election hoax (which he can still repeat) was to tell voters what they knew in their bones – that somewhere in Washington there was a smoke-filled back room where powerful people were out to get their own. Make a deal for your own benefit. His solution, of course, is not to make it public but to invite voters (at least figuratively) to smoke a big cigar with him.
Ramaswamy is certainly less toxic than Trump, but he may be just as selfish. He denounces Reaganomics but has yet to offer a coherent alternative. In fact, many of his proposals, such as shutting down the FBI, the IRS, and the Department of Education, are impossibly libertarian. So far, the nascent post-Reagan right has no solid political figures to rally around.
Still, I think we’ll look back and view this primary as a turning point. For decades, Reaganomics set the framework for economic policy on both the left and the right. The fact that Republicans are now abandoning trickle-down economics is something the business community should pay close attention to.
rana.foroohar@ft.com
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