Looking at the Republican Party, it’s really hard to know what they believe anymore. Yes, some elected Republicans still present themselves in the mold of Ronald Reagan, portraying themselves as believers in limited government and fiscally conservative ideals. Others, though, are very much in line with the populism, nationalism, and nativism that has broadly infected the Republican Party.
The former is a dwindling group. The latter is now the dominant strain of “conservatism.” For populists, it’s not about policy; it’s about grievance and using the power of the state for the purposes of retribution.
Part of me wants to believe that the state of conservatism reflects the changing demographics in the country. As I’ve mentioned in this space before, we’re growing older as a society, and younger generations are more diverse than any predecessors. And, unlike previous generations, younger voters aren’t getting more conservative with age.
Republicans have been content to pull large numbers of white voters, but the population of whites in the country declined by 8.6 percent between 2010 and 2020. By 2060, whites are projected to decline to 44.3 percent of the population from 61.3 percent in 2016. The fastest-growing racial demographics are expected to be Hispanics, Asians, and individuals of blended heritage.
Republicans have made some inroads with Hispanic voters. They did better with Hispanic voters in the 2022 midterms than in the 2020 presidential election. That said, there’s still a long way to go there, and it’s unclear if Republicans are able to continue making strides among Hispanic voters.
The other part of me recognizes that conservatism has been trending this way for quite some time. Making matters worse, there’s an entire segment of the movement that has organized around populist economic policies and a rather extreme brand of social conservatism. There’s also an aversion to the classic liberal ideals on which the United States was founded. These populists tend to have more in common with Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban than John Locke and Adam Smith or Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Again, it appears that this is the dominant strain of conservatism today.
That brings me to the response to the State of the Union given by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. There was little of substance in her speech. It was mostly focused on the culture wars. Now, I thought choosing her was a bad idea for Republicans considering the role she played in the White House under the ex-president. It did nothing to provide the distance that Republicans need to put the ex-president in the rearview mirror. What I didn’t expect was the speech to be so heavy on culture.
I’ll concede that I’m not a social conservative, nor am I religious. I eschewed religion many years ago. Part of that was because of the way I saw those who believe treat others. (Certainly, there are many Christians who are welcoming to those who are different from them, and I’m not casting aspersions on them. And by “different,” I mean racial, cultural, and religious differences.)
I say all that to say that I actually sympathize at least some with conservatives on cultural issues, but even where I sympathize with conservatives, I often find them obnoxiously angry and disagreeable. Conservatives don’t like “critical race theory,” which Sanders mentioned in her speech, but the reality is that conservatives don’t want to talk about race or the stains on America’s history, including slavery, Jim Crow and segregation, redlining, etc. Conservatives don’t want to discuss the topic of policing because race is impossible to avoid.
Several years ago, I was giving a talk to a group of conservative activists about sentencing policy. I mentioned the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. When taking questions from the group, a Black conservative activist asked me why I didn’t talk about the racial demographics of individuals incarcerated for crack cocaine. It was a good question. I avoided it during my talk.
After being put on the spot like that, and in my usual way, I bluntly said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Sir, you are right. I did, but I acknowledge that the vast majority of people incarcerated for crack cocaine are Black. The reason I didn’t mention it is because conservatives, who are typically white, don’t want to hear race-based arguments when it comes to the impact of criminal justice policies.” I appreciated the question because I got to say what needed to be said. I also got zero pushback from the audience.
Sanders said, “Every day, we are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols all while big government colludes with Big Tech to strip away the most American thing there is—your freedom of speech. That’s not normal. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong.”
This is one area of the culture wars where I’m sensitive to conservative arguments, but the policy solutions that they put forward (which Sanders didn’t mention) are ridiculous. Eliminating Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act would mean more censorship, not less, and weaponizing antitrust opens a can of worms that conservatives don’t seem to understand or at least fully grasp.
But to what Sanders said about being forced to “partake in their rituals, salute their flags, and worship their false idols,” when did this happen? I haven’t gotten that memo that I have to do certain rituals, salute certain flags, or worship any idols. Granted, I don’t get much into the culture war stuff on social media. It’s not something that drives me. I find it far too taxing and a general waste of energy to engage in it. Most conservatives I see on social media seem like they go out of their way to engage in the culture wars, from abortion to gay rights to transgender rights to policing. I respect that people have different views points and are entitled to those viewpoints, but the stuff I frequently see on social media often goes well beyond intolerant.
Am I saying that the other side of the culture wars hasn’t pushed things too far? No, I’m not. But it’s a constant escalation between the extremes on both sides, and both sides are severely lacking in adult supervision. In terms of censorship, I would tend to agree that it has gone too far, but I would also say that banning some people like certain white nationalists and neo-Nazis, who I don’t care to name here, from social media platforms is perfectly fine with me.
Honestly, I don’t know where the Republican Party goes from here, though. The lurch toward illiberalism in the GOP through the politics of grievance is very concerning because of the conservatives’ apparent newfound belief in using government to achieve certain social policy ends and antidemocratic views. I’m not saying that progressives are any better, so don’t get me wrong here, but the escalation in the culture wars is, in my view, much more pronounced on the right.