Donald Trump is reshaping conservative orthodoxy and the Republican faithful are loving it.
Crammed to capacity in the Potomac Ballroom at CPAC, a conservative congregation cheered a president who has taken positions that would’ve been considered heretical just a few years earlier.
At one point during the address, the crowd literally jumped to their feet cheering against free trade. And later, the Republican president plugged a socialist. “Actually I like Bernie,” Trump said, “He was right about trade. Our country is being absolutely devastated by bad deals.” The crowd erupted.
Of course, it didn’t used to be this way.
Republicans were once the party of free markets and the party’s most hardcore adherents would flock annually to Washington, D.C., for three days of CPAC. While Trump got his start at the conference, his celebrity, not his ideas, carried the day back in 2011. That year, Rep. Ron Paul won the straw poll for attendees’ favorite presidential candidate.
A barometer for the GOP’s base, the CPAC straw poll has selected four candidates in the last decade, each very different than the current president. The libertarian vote carried Sen. Rand Paul to victory three times and his father, Ron Paul, twice. Last year, Sen. Ted Cruz was the conference champion.
Now it’s Trump’s party though. Already, the president has rewritten the GOP position on immigration, trade and entitlements. Clearly, Trump’s cognizant of this transformation. “I’m here to tell you what this means for the future of the Republican Party and the future of America,” he bellowed.
While the tagline for that transformation is “America first,” Trump’s policies are a radical departure from traditional conservative and libertarian positions on issues like trade, immigration, and entitlements. For another politician, that sweeping change would be difficult if not impossible. With the adulation of his new conservative converts, it’ll be easy for Trump.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
