There was a time — not so long ago — that Republicans were flattering themselves as the party of ideas . . . while also, for years, constantly fretting that they were losing that reputation. I don’t know why there was all this drama. Are tax cuts an idea? Or do they only become one when you speculate that they fund themselves with growth? Is Medicare Part D an inspiring idea? Or more of an electoral hedge?
Then along came Trump. Electing a person who never seemed to read books actually did turn the Right into a salon. Trump didn’t have ideas — he had dramatic gripes, slogans, and policies he favored. The absence of theory in Trump meant that conservative intellectuals suddenly had all sorts of work to do justifying his rise, or repudiating it. Was globalization a process of elite economic and moral secession from national loyalties that had to be amended and reversed? Or was populist nationalism an attack on a fundamentally worthwhile liberal world order?
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