In a piece for the latest issue of National Affairs, I propose a new path forward for the American center-right: small-r republicanism. Thread to follow 1/n nationalaffairs.com/publications/d…
Here I want to tackle the question: why would I write such a thing? After all, for a dozen years now I’ve been associated with the “liberaltarian” project of mixing libertarian ideas with center-left liberalism. I’ll explain with a brief political autobiography. 2/n
I was born and raised conservative. My earliest memory is being teased by cousins for wearing an AuH20 cowboy hat weeks after the ’64 election (I was 2). My first act of political independence was bucking my Ford-supporting parents and rooting for Reagan in ’76. 3/n
In high school I discovered Ayn Rand and became libertarian, but for practical politics I remained an avid supporter of conservatism and the GOP. I cast my first vote for Reagan in ’80 – along with all four of my freshman roommates (surely unique on the Princeton campus). 4/n
I moved away from Rand in favor of Hayek, but my politics stayed constant: I voted for both Bushes. Then, with Bush 43, I had one of those careful-what-you-wish-for moments: finally, at long last, the GOP had unified control of Washington. Didn’t turn out like I hoped. 5/n
The Bush years pulled me away from the right. Disillusionment over Iraq (I had been a supporter) and the failure of Social Security privatization (which convinced me that rolling back the welfare state was a dead end) were important factors. But the biggest reason… 6/n
…was the recognition that all the energy & momentum on the right were with the culture warriors and anti-intellectual populism: e.g., stem cells, anti-gay-marriage laws, Terri Schiavo, and increasingly bellicose immigration restrictionism. 7/n
So in 2006 I changed my registration from R to independent, voted straight D in the midterms, and wrote “Liberaltarians” for The New Republic. 8/n cato.org/publications/c…
My overtures to the left were spectacularly ill-timed: with the ’06 wave and then Obama’s charismatic rise in ’08, progressives had zero interest in borrowing ideas from their right. 9/n
So I reconciled myself to being homeless, gave up thinking about politics, and focused on developing pro-market policy reforms with transpartisan appeal (which led ultimately to writing this book with Steve Teles). 10/n amazon.com/Captured-Econo…
Then came Trump. With his rise and the GOP’s surrender to him, I no longer saw the right as merely misguided and reactionary. Now I saw it as a real threat to liberal democratic institutions that were fragile and under assault. 11/n
In 2017 I moved to the Niskanen Center, which among other things hosts the Meetings of the Concerned for the Never Trump right. 12/n
And hanging out with Never Trumpers and admiring their integrity, I came to the conclusion that their struggle was perhaps the most important one in American politics: without a decent right, we couldn't maintain a stable, flourishing democracy. 13/n
The right was now so overwhelmed by the populist Dark Side that merely denouncing it and rooting for the other guys weren’t enough. Trumpism needed to be fought, not just by Dems, but internally on the right as well. 14/n
What might a decent, constructive American right look like? That’s a question I’ve been wrestling with since Trump won. This essay is my first stab at an answer. END
