Gregory Jack: Getting to know the 'New Republicans'
Everything America does for the foreseeable future is rooted in the singular belief that America needs to resume its rightful place.
By: Gregory Jack
Let the devil take the hindmost — to leave the least able or fortunate persons to suffer adverse consequences; leave behind or to one's fate.”
— Collins Dictionary
The re-election of Donald Trump has masked a growing and profound shift in American politics, and ushered in a new era of Republicanism in the United States. Trump’s return is seen by many to be an isolated incident, an aberration from previous conventional norms and one that will resolve once the man himself is gone from power or from this earth.
For these people, the issue is Trump and Trump alone.
I believe that this is a profound misunderstanding of what is happening in America today, and what the future holds.
The old Republican party is gone. In its place is a movement that is built on the foundations of 19th century expansionism; strength and self-interest. It is motivated to settle grievances against the post-war consensus conservatism that it blames — more than it even blames the left — for the decline of the once-mighty American empire. For the New Republican, Ronald Regan and George W. Bush were as much responsible as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in ushering in America’s decline.
Donald Trump is the transitionary vessel to carry that movement forward. He is the tip of the spear whose job is to crack open the institutions that the New Republican believes poisoned America for decades. Overton’s Window is wide open for the New Republican now.
It is useful to start with describing the New Republican movement. It is not the previous Republican movement of lower taxes, less state intervention or smaller government. These things may also be part of Trump’s movement, or at least a slice of it, but those are the beliefs of yesterday’s Republicans. Today’s ideology happens to dovetail well into the libertarian beliefs of the tech bros led by Elon Musk. Trump and Musk’s bromance is premised on some shared affection for each other as strong businessmen and leaders. But the alliance is shaky. Libertarian Republicans are only being tolerated by the larger movement because it’s useful in tearing down the structures the New Republican wishes to rebuild.
What are those structures? Commentators like Steve Bannon and Oren Cass have offered some hints recently in their public remarks.
A strong, interventionist state that imposes its self-interest and will upon the world with neither mercy nor sentiment.
The New Republican’s goal is America for America’s sake. America is not to be taken for granted anymore. It will come, and it will take, what it is rightfully entitled to in pursuing its self-interest. That means territory, influence, power and control. It will use the tools and leverage at its disposal — tariffs being one such tool, but not the only one. Never again will America give away its leverage through free-trade agreements and global compacts like the World Health Organization or the United Nations. America shall not be hoodwinked again by the weaker powers seeking to take advantage of her promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s not personal, it’s just what America must do.
A strong working class. The New Republican has co-opted the working class and turned the labour movement on its head. As with Marxism, the working man is a critical part of the New Republican movement. Americans will trade their labour to produce things that are, first and foremost, made in America, by Americans, for the benefit of Americans. If prices happen to rise as a result, that’s a feature, not a bug, because the working New Republican will have the wages needed to buy those American goods, and American companies will prosper.
A secure and expanding territory. Trump’s musings about taking Greenland from the Danish, making Canada the 51st state and assuming control of Gaza or the Panama Canal are the beginning of the New Republican vision taking hold, not ends unto themselves. The New Republican wants this territory because having it benefits America. Full stop. The Monroe Doctrine is not only alive and well again, but it will be deployed continuously where necessary — through tariffs, military strength or other means — to expand American influence and counter China or any other country that wishes to challenge American dominance. That — expanding American influence any way possible — is the end unto itself.
The New Republican is a value proposition. He rejects the very notion of normative values, that some countries may have values that are different, and which are to be tolerated even though they may be counter to American interests. There is no space for these values for the New Republican. The New Republican believes American values are superior and should be exported to the world. These values include family, fortitude, hard work, God, self-interest, the proper roles of the (two) sexes and especially, strength. That these values are the “right” values is self-evident to the New Republican, who believes that they should also be for everyone else.
Who are the New Republicans? One should look to Trump’s choices for cabinet — J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio and Howard Lutnick are good places to start. They all figure to be around — and in control of the party apparatus — once Trump is gone.
Elon Musk is not one of these people. Like Trump, he is the pointy end of a spear, and when the falling out between him and the New Republicans happens, it will not be pretty.
Finally, the New Republican is a lot of Americans. More than many would like to believe.
What can be done? Countries like Canada and blocs like the European Union must deploy a mixture of urgency, adaptation, resolve and pragmatism. We must remember that everything America does for the foreseeable future is rooted in one singular belief that America has been taken advantage of and needs to resume its rightful place at the top of the food chain.
Benefits to America must be immediate, tangible and visible. We must assume that once those benefits are accrued — at a cost to others — there may be more demands later. There is no final agreement, and compromise is only an indication of weakness, to be exploited the next time. All agreements with America are transactional and temporary. We must be ready to suffer for our sovereignty.
We need to do a much better job of defending pluralism and the value of free markets, and that includes returning many of those spoils to workers and re-asserting small-l liberalism’s benefits. We must defend, especially, the right to free speech, even when that speech causes offence. Especially when it causes offence.
We must rethink and reform our global institutions if we want them to survive. The United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organization in particular have not served citizens well. America may yet exit those institutions anyways, but we must persist in finding ways to reform them. And we must bolster our collective responsibility and resolve to create prosperity and security within our own borders, unable as we are now to rely on others like the United States to create it for us. “Buying Canada” is easy. Buying ice breakers, developing a strategy to protect and sell our minerals, and building a pipeline through Quebec are hard. But they must, finally, be done.
We must wake up and realize that Donald Trump isn’t a moment, but a movement, and it’s only going to get worse from here.
Gregory Jack is a public affairs professional with expertise in strategic communication and policy. A member of the 2011 Beyond the Border Working Group that led to an agreement with the United States on perimeter security and economic competitiveness, he now leads the Ottawa practice of a major market research firm.
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The one word that leaps out with regard to Canada is "urgency"
We are not there yet by a country mile, and that is dismal.
Well finally someone who gets it. Nicely written and well phrased without becoming too Professorial. You also seem to have kept a clear eye on this and congratulations, I couldn't tell if you are a Liberal, Conservative, or Libertarian. THAT is good writing. (Others might take note.) And I believe your analysis, as someone who does a lot of business with and travels extensively across the US at all political levels, is very shrewd and accurate. The folks we see speaking to the US are just the tip of the spear. Others, the future contacts, are watching how we act and interact. So do you want to work with them or suffer under them? We have a long, long border and it is not going anywhere. It has benefitted both countries for a century to have that "undefended" and to work together. Look at the auto production, cattle raising, and pipeline systems of the many examples; they are intertwined and they work. Hopefully the new government will realize that and do its best to repair our relationship with the US as a whole and the administration specifically. If not, as you accurately projected, it's going to be a hard road.