PARTY REALIGNMENT
to rust-belt workers were clearly successful, as Biden himself shamelessly stole his talking points, like “Buy American” and “It’s past time to end the Forever Wars, which have cost us untold blood and treasure.” It would be foolish to abandon this winning platform, and Republicans like Rubio realize this. But just because the corporate elite has deserted the GOP doesn’t automatically empty the GOP of Paul Ryans, who desperately want to win back their favor. “Working class” is not an empty moniker... It refers to a living swath of people with direct, material interests. As it is a class , appealing to them must necessarily preclude cultural appeals, as economic identity unites people across racial and religious boundaries. While Trump has dropped the opportunity to become the working-class party into the GOP’s lap, that doesn’t mean they have. The GOP needs to support workers in substance, not just in rhetoric. “Working class” is not an empty moniker... It refers to a living swath of people with direct, material interests. As it is a class , appealing to them must necessarily preclude cultural appeals, as economic identity unites people across racial and religious boundaries. It would also require Republicans to vociferously fight against policies that
are objectively contrary to workers’ interests. Identifying these can be controversial, but for starters, a workers’ party would not pursue outsourcing, nor would they try to inflate the labor supply with immigrant workers to undercut wages and break strikes. There’s also the gig economy, busting unions, lowering or getting rid of the minimum wage, and a host of other class war tactics the party used to support. There will no doubt be an intense fight within the GOP to prevent this change from happening. For instance, National Review recently published a piece calling the GOP-as-working-class-party notion a “myth,” arguing that culture-war issues, not economics, drive voters. Whether this is true or not, if the GOP is to become a workers’ party, it would need to base its policies on what its working constituents want. Workers would decide which types of reforms would allow them an economic advantage, and the party would respond by turning these reforms into legislation. Some might argue that the GOP is at risk of losing whatever donors they have left by fully committing to working-class policies. But who needs donors when you already have the votes? Shane Devine is a research assistant at the Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of The New School and holds fellowships with America’s Future Foundation, the Claremont Institute, and The American Conservative.
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January 2021
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