When Donald Trump — with his Patrick Buchanan-influenced emphasis on nativism, protectionism and isolationism — was elected president in 2016, it marked a new era for the Republican Party and, in many ways, rejected the Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush view of conservatism. Politico co-founder John H. Harris, in a December 18 op-ed, analyzes Trump’s impeachment and the ways in which it underscores the GOP’s departure from the Reaganesque conservatism of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
“One consequence of the Trump years is that it has knocked conservatives off a high horse that they had been riding since the Reagan era,” Harris asserts. “Ideas matter, they said triumphantly, drawing a contrast with the supposedly transactional, spoils-based nature of Democratic politicians and the interest groups they relied on. Another favorite: denunciations of moral relativism, a way of justifying any kind of selfish behavior when, in fact, right and wrong are absolutes.”
But with so many Republicans vigorously defending Trump during impeachment efforts against him, Harris adds, the 2019 edition of the GOP can hardly complain about Democrats’ “moral relativism” with a straight face. Continue reading