The Coming Fight over Trumpism: Charisma or Policy?

Darren Beattie, the energetic muckraker behind Revolver News, has penned an outstanding polemic about a coming contest to define the near-term future of the Republican Party. It is his tribute to the combative and magnetic Kari Lake, and her seemingly unstoppable rise to the Arizona governorship. For Beattie, Lake is the proof that political charisma is more important than the right policy agenda.

And I hope he won’t mind my quoting it at length before registering my objections. Beattie takes to task those “professional conservatives” who “have lectured voters about the need to translate President Trump’s winning style into a ‘serious’ policy agenda.” He charges us with “fantasiz[ing] about Trump’s policies (or a stale, watered-down version thereof) offered by a figure as boring as they are, someone less combative and therefore more ‘respectable.’ This person, they believe, will win electoral and policy victories without spurring the liberal opposition’s anger and intensity.”