“Family Ties” is worth a brief comment. The ‘80s sitcom’s premise was that good-natured hippie parents had a provocatively Reaganite son. The feel-good irony was that the rebelliously conservative son helped his parents grow up a bit, but they were still wiser in the end. Boomer nostalgia was already a powerful trend in the ‘80s, and the show tried to helped idealistically hippie boomers—or boomers who imagined they’d once been idealistic—reconcile themselves to a Reaganite present that was nothing like the foretold Age of Aquarius.

Capitalism in the 19th century stood in contrast to agrarian society and the ancien regime. In the 20th century, it stood in contrast to Communism. It lacks a defining point of contrast today—the only competing system, Chinese-style managerialism, is itself labeled capitalist. Part of the significance of this is that to be anti-Communist usually entailed being capitalist, in at least relative way. Capitalism picked up support by default. Now capitalism has to stand on its own, without automatically getting support from another system’s opponents.

See the whole thread by @DouthatNYT of which this is a part. Why don’t nationalists care about child tax credits? I’m going to give my view of the hard-right’s answer, then a view of my own.

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First, the hard right—Roy Moore Christian or Trump nationalist—doesn’t think child tax credits really are “something.” They won’t change demographic trends.