Karl W. Smith, Columnist

The Wrong Vision for the Republican Party — and America

Americans won’t stand for a federal government that tries to impose traditional values.

June 5, 2019 at 10:30 AM UTC

Karl W. Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Previously, he was vice president for federal policy at the Tax Foundation and assistant professor of economics at the University of North Carolina.

The present and future face of conservatism?
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Conservatives are currently engaged in a vicious intramural debate over their future in the Republican Party. Like all such debates, it can seem opaque — even its participants aren’t always sure what they’re arguing about — but the implications for both the tenor and content of American politics are profound.

The debate is sprawling, but its contours are pretty well defined: One side wants to restore the old fusion between social and economic conservatism. The other wants to abandon it and embrace the authoritarian traditionalist vision embodied by President Donald Trump.