.
"The Republican party has essentially exhausted the two
ideological themes it has ridden on since about 1980--free markets--and
social conservatism."...
Sept. 2015 article:
9/30/2015, "Donald Trump Is Trying to Save the Republican Party From Itself," Ian Fletcher, Huffington Post
...........
"The Republican party has essentially exhausted the two
ideological themes it has ridden on since about 1980-- free markets and
social conservatism -- and needs new ones to survive.
...............
Any ideologues out there, I'm sorry: American history makes quite clear that partisan ideological themes don't last forever, in either party. They're good for a few decades, then they evolve or get dumped....
............
First, consider the exhaustion of free-market ideology.
This doesn't mean that free markets per se, which obviously have
enormous validity, are dead as an idea. But it does mean that pushing
even further in the direction of free markets is dead as an idea.
...........
Why?
Most obviously, the 2008 financial crisis, whose effects we're still
dealing with, was an effect of markets allowed to run amok, not of
markets being insufficiently free. (Yes, I know you can blame it all on
the government, but that's a tendentious "reality is the opposite of
what you see" argument.)
...........
There's a happy medium between too much
and too little regulation, and we've basically reached the limit of our
ability to improve our economy by deregulating further....
The Republican donor
class...while not sincerely socially conservative, very much
adores free-market ideology as the perfect rationalization for their
crony-capitalist reality. (Their interpretation of "free" markets is
"government won't interfere with private distortions of markets in my favor.")...
........
The
bigger joke is that the Republican establishment is fighting so hard
against being saved. They may be the last to figure this all out."
...............
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