The American Right is no longer a monolith, writes former Republican strategist James Garvin.
The GOP’s energy agenda is evolving, and Garvin’s essay is the best attempt yet to summarize it.1.
The American conservative movement is growing.
It is growing faster than ever.2.
The Republican Party is not.
It has never been.3.
It should not be.4.
It’s time to abandon the notion that the Republican Party can win the presidency or win elections.5.
The real threat to conservatism in America is not radical Islam or climate change.6.
The political future of conservatism depends on the Republican National Committee.7.
The future of the Republican party is tied to the future of American politics.8.
A new breed of Republican is emerging, a new breed that is a better fit for America than the GOP’s current crop.9.
A party whose base is made up of white men, is not necessarily a more conservative one.10.
The end of the American right is near.
It was, Garvin writes, a sobering thought: “In the past decade, a generation of white American men has been transformed from Republicans to Republicans.
As I watched the GOP embrace its new base, I felt that the country’s future lay in a future in which conservatism was more inclusive and more open to women, people of color, the poor, the young, and the LGBT community.
The only question was, how.”
That future has arrived.
In 2017, Garvins column became a best-seller in conservative circles, and he’s the latest conservative thinker to write about it.
Garvin, who worked for Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann in 2012, argues that the party needs to “drastically” evolve, but he does not offer any specific prescriptions.
He wrote his column in the wake of President Donald Trump’s victory in November, when he won the Electoral College by a margin of 304 votes to 232 for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
It was the most lopsided electoral victory in the party’s history, and its supporters, he said, “are furious that their dreams of a more prosperous, more prosperous country were shattered.”
He called Trump’s election “a historic defeat” for the GOP.
He noted that in the 2016 presidential campaign, “there was a lot of talk of Trump being the nominee.
Now, Trump is the president.
We’re going to see that happen again, and it will happen more frequently, and will be more devastating for the Republican brand than anything we’ve seen in the past 40 years.
The party will have to be more inclusive of its constituencies, and that means embracing more of its people.”
This is a new party, Garvas wrote.
Its new leadership must be more responsive to the diverse voices it has to serve, including the women, LGBT, the underserved, the non-college educated, the immigrants, Muslims, and Native Americans.
It must focus on winning over a broader swath of the electorate.
“The Republican Party has to get beyond its traditional base,” Garvin wrote.
“Its traditional base includes white, middle-class men.
The new base has to include all people of every ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, religion, gender identity, gender expression, and socioeconomic status.”
A key ingredient in a successful Republican presidential bid is appealing to a broader base of voters, Garwin wrote.
“It has become increasingly apparent to me over the last four years that the GOP has never had a genuine chance of winning an election unless it appealed to a broad coalition of Americans,” he wrote.
That means focusing on the “American majority,” and “not just the white, male, middle class, rural, working class.”
Garvin also called for the party to be “more inclusive of racial, ethnic, and gender identities,” and to work to “reduce barriers to participation and economic mobility.”
He also wrote about how “the GOP has become the party of the billionaire class,” and the party must “end the ‘millionaire tax,'” and put a “millionaire’s tax” on top of a tax on corporations and the wealthy.
The new Republican Party needs to address “the structural issues that are keeping young people out of the workforce and in poverty,” he said.
And he said it has become clear to him that “Trumpism is not the only answer.”
He said he was “proud” of the party for “continuing to reject climate change denialism” and “opposing abortion rights, marriage equality, and even marriage for same-sex couples.”
And he said he’s “puzzled” that the new party has not addressed the problems of the poor.
“There are a lot more problems in the U.S. than just inequality, but poverty,” Garvens column concluded.
“The GOP needs to be bolder about addressing poverty and racial inequality, and to be far more responsive and inclusive of the people