Throughout the first year of the Trump presidency, the only thing holding together what was left of my sanity was the relatively bland and uncontroversial nature of economic policy.
Republicans, no matter where we may fall on the spectrum when it comes to the more heated debates of gun control or abortion, could all comfortably come together, hold hands, and sing kumbaya in support of a free market.
It’s not sexy, but sound policy rarely is.
Last week, when President Trump announced pending tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, the Republican Party raised a collective eyebrow. Trump has always had misguided, protectionist views on trade, but perhaps the constant scurrying of the administration and Congress to get anything done made the reality of this coming to fruition seem far away, lost in the legislative abyss. Until now.
Of course, it didn’t end with Trump simply calling for tariffs, but a full-out trade war. In true Trump fashion, he upped the ante on Twitter, claiming “trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
What President Trump conveniently forgets (or perhaps blatantly ignores) is that nobody wins in a trade war. Not only is his stance a slap in the face to every free-market-loving Republican in the nation, it clearly illustrates that he has either a horribly fractured understanding of basic economics, or worse, he doesn’t care.
Perhaps even more frightening than Trump’s remarks has been the Republican response. Academics, conservative journalists, and many Republican congressmen have come forward stating the obvious—that tariffs and a trade war spell bad news for the United States. But a recent Quinnipiac University poll paints a very different, very startling picture.
When asked if they approved of the way Trump is handling trade, a startling 69 percent of Republicans said yes.
It’s a frightening number at face value, but in taking a step back to take a look at the bigger picture, I realized something far more disturbing: this isn’t the Republican Party I signed up for.
For a party that prides itself on individualism and intellectual diversity, it is disappointing to see so many falling in line with a policy or ideology that they don’t necessarily believe in simply because the president decided to put an “R” next to his name.
This is isn’t Republican. It certainly isn’t conservative. And neither is Trump. But none of this should come as a surprise. Why? Because many of us sacrificed our values and fell in line long ago.
When Trump vocalized his support for credibly accused sexual predator Roy Moore for Senate, the RNC cut a check to the tune of $170,000, despite previously pulling the funding. When President Trump said that his preferred way of tackling gun violence was to “take the guns first, go through due process second,”—nothing. And when President Trump continually fails to publicly condemn the alt-right, antisemitism, and racism that is plaguing not only the Republican Party but society as a whole—crickets.
We’re living in the political upside down, and some Republicans can’t seem to get right-side-up again. And while the party may be enjoying the short-term effects of controlling the House, Senate, and White House, the long-term implications could be disastrous if we don’t start putting principle before party once again.
Playing with the cards we’ve been dealt and speaking truth to power do not have to be mutually exclusive terms. If the Republican Party won’t stand up to Trump when he so boldly defies our values, it’s not unreasonable to ask “do we stand for anything at all?”
Taylor McCarty (@taylormcsquared) is a communications strategist in Washington, D.C.
