The Vanishing Tradition by Paul Gottfried

The Vanishing Tradition by Paul Gottfried

Author:Paul Gottfried
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press


10

REPUBLICAN VOTERS AND CONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGY

George Hawley

Most Republican Voters Are Not Conservative

When Republicans battle for presidential nominations, we expect candidates to compete for the mantle of “true conservative,” or more specifically, “Ronald Reagan conservative.” Candidates use every opportunity to lambast their opponents for their apparent lack of conservative purity. The 2016 GOP primary was different; Donald Trump chose not to play that game and was pilloried by the conservative intelligentsia. Leading conservatives apparently believed the modal Republican voter was a “true conservative,” dedicated to constitutional government, limited intervention in the economy, traditional family values, and neoconservative foreign policies. Thus, they thought pointing out Trump’s ideological impurity would derail his candidacy. To these conservatives’ frustration, their attacks did not matter. They did not matter because Republicans in the electorate care about conservative principles far less than conservatives in the Beltway believed. The public’s conservatism, as the conservative movement understands the term, is more symbolic than substantive.



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