Detrumpification of the GOP
A path toward establishing a non-MAGA conservative faction that can renew principled conservatism both within and without the Republican Party.
In a 2021 column for the Los Angeles Times, Jonah Goldberg suggested a plan to "impose some pain on the Trumpified GOP" by establishing local and regional "Reaganite" third parties who could either throw their support behind acceptable Republican candidates or run their own candidates as spoiler campaigns if Republicans nominate an unacceptable candidate. He further defended this plan in a members-only Dispatch newsletter.
As a veteran of third-party efforts, independent campaigns, and "principled conservative" movements, I disagreed with Jonah Goldberg's plan (an usual position for myself to be in since, for the most part, I have a "Jonah is my co-pilot" sticker embedded quite solidly on my political soul). My objections are perhaps best reflected in the replies penned by Jonah's former colleagues at the National Review, though I don't subscribe to every particular critique (here, here, here, and here).
(If you'd like an extended journey into my reasonings for returning to active engagement in the Republican Party and my steadfast determination to stay there, you can read these various posts: Twitter Rants, How the Center Lost Its Mind, I'm Not Retreating This Time, Prudence Over Principles?, Dems Aren't Saving the Constitution, Reclaim the Party of Lincoln, and The Republican Party Isn’t Irredeemable.
Suffice it to say, I'm a dedicated, non-Trump conservative who has nevertheless come full circle and has determined his place is within the Republican Party, trying to be a force for good. I've faced the grim reality that the two major political parties constitute the pipelines through which people are chosen to fill political offices in America. Either I engage in the process that exists and try to insert my ideals and principles into the selection of candidates, or I end up living with the choices made by others (who are happy to wield such power without my input or opposition within the party structure).
My initial skepticism and opposition to Jonah Goldberg's 2021 proposal are twofold. First, I've observed and experienced that third-party efforts are untenable if there isn't a general appetite for them. Second, I've observed the trend of the major parties shifting to the margins because most reasonable Americans have checked out and no longer engage in party processes.
Too many Americans skip past the primaries and only show up when they have to choose between the two candidates imposed upon them by the radicalized few who still engage in and control the parties. I have grown highly skeptical and, indeed, hostile to any effort that further encourages an exile from participation in party processes. Such a self-imposed exile only further entrenches and emboldens the extreme elements (who are more than happy to wield power without any pushback within the parties).
My experiences and observations over the last half-decade have convinced me that the best and most effective way for American citizens to engage in politics is to determine which major political party best fits their values and then bring their perspective into that party and be a force for good. I've come to feel that any movement, effort, or plan that has the opposite effect and further convinces the reasonable majority to abandon the two major parties will only compound the problem. The only result I see from this happening is the further entrenchment of the marginal factions that have gained control of the parties.
For these reasons, I recoiled in 2021 when Jonah suggested another third-party effort. But there’s a Remnant Podcast episode from that same year in which Jonah discussed the ideas from his column with Michael Brendan Dougherty, one of his National Review detractors. Some of the conversation in that episode suggested to me that Jonah was actually on to something. His conceptualization of a working solution only lacked a subtle shift toward a different form of political organization.
Who's to say we can only accomplish Jonah's goal of punishing the kooks in the GOP and forcing a principled renewal without further enabling a progressive mandate (which we should be equally opposed to) through a political party?
After all, I agree with Jonah's key premise: voting for Democrats until the GOP learns its lesson is not a sustainable path if what we seek is truly a restoration of the principles and values of the American founding. This will only lead to further emboldened progressivism in the Democratic Party and further entrenched reaction and nationalism in the Republican Party.
I also agree that closing our eyes, voting for Republicans in a negative partisan gambit, and hoping Trump and his enablers just fade away on their own isn't a realistic path either. The silence of the decent in the ranks of conservatism has, as we’ve seen this year, only enabled a resurgence of Trumpism and has led to a second coming of Donald Trump in 2024. Clearly, something different needed to happen, and still needs to happen, to alter the country's trajectory under these two major parties.
It turns out that Jonah's 2021 prognosis was spot on, even if his prescription needed some tweaking. We need a way to oppose both progressivism and nationalism. We need to push back against Trumpism without enabling the Woke Left, and vice versa. Jonah's scheme of finding a way to offer support for acceptable Republican candidates and only opposing clearly unacceptable candidates may be just the way to split the difference, once we move past the idea of establishing a new political party.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Nikki Haley's surprising performance in the Republican primaries despite Trump’s apparent grip on the GOP. While she only clinched victories in two contests, Vermont and Washington D.C., she nevertheless easily gained between 20-40% in most of the contests. Even after she withdrew from the race, she is still gaining over 10% in the more recent contests. And all of this despite considerably low turnout by registered Republicans (for example, Nikki Haley won 43% of the vote in Utah despite only 9% of registered Republicans casting a vote). Clearly, there is a faction of the GOP that wants something different than what Trump has been offering for the last three presidential election cycles.
With this reality in mind, what we need is a modest alteration to Jonah's proposal. Instead of creating new Reaganite parties, we need a Reagan Caucus within the GOP to give home to these disaffected but still conservative Republican voters. And this is exactly what several non-Trump conservatives, spearheaded by Thomas Howes, are currently trying to do.
Taking Reagan as a symbol of an old-school approach to Republican politics and a commitment to conservative principles unstained by the reactionary nature of Trump’s brand of nationalist populism, this Reagan Caucus is declaring an intention to engage in the GOP's primaries and processes to push back against MAGA’s control of the party, and pledges to withhold their support of Republican candidates who embody or acquiesce to the toxic nature of the MAGA movement.
If non-Trump conservatives take this path, it can solve several of the problems with the third-party route:
We could still participate in the Republican Party and wouldn't further abandon the party to the very forces we wish to curtail.
We would be encouraging more participation in the party processes instead of further enabling control of the processes by those we oppose.
We wouldn't be seen as a rival or spoiler political party.
We wouldn't be operating from the get-go as a spoiler effort.
We would have clear organizing principles and, especially, could demonstrate a contrast to the party's current direction given that the actual “agenda” of Trump and MAGA changes at his whim (TikTok).
We could both endorse acceptable Republican primary candidates and actively work to get them through the process.
There would be nothing keeping us from endorsing acceptable Republican candidates who lost in the primaries as independent candidates should the eventual nominee prove to be wholly unacceptable, or throwing our support behind other independents or even third-party candidates.
The caucus's declared values would hopefully keep members from being less inclined to support Democrats unless the Democratic candidate moved to accommodate us as a more moderate alternative in the mold of Manchin or Sinema.
I think this approach has a good shot at accomplishing what Jonah proposed in 2021 while answering the concerns many had with his proposal, including myself. There have long been various caucuses within both political parties and many other organizations and lobbying entities that support or withhold their support of party nominees based on declared principles.
So, the Reagan Caucus is not going to be doing anything new or threatening, and it could engage in ways that would still accomplish the goals that Jonah put forward, arguably in more effective ways given that we'd still be engaging in the GOP itself without other Republicans easily dismissing us as a rival or spoiler party. We could force a genuine debate on principles and vision that could transcend Trump and Trumpism instead of becoming a reflexive opposition that loses its intellectual grounding in the struggle of the general election.
And besides, even most Trump voters still love Reagan, and this effort could be an effective way to provide a better contrast between an actual conservative vision and the angry, unprincipled direction that Trump has taken the party.
Justin Stapley received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Utah Valley University, with emphases in political philosophy, public law, American history, and constitutional studies. He is the Founding and Executive Director of the Freemen Foundation as well as Editor in Chief of the Freemen News-Letter. @JustinWStapley
This is a good start!
Even though I would be considered as a member of the New Right, this approach would make me open to supporting a more Reaganite candidate