What the working class GOP is and isn't

Tough-guy populism vs. Welfare State Lite

A few days ago, Oren Cass’ American Compass released a poll with the bold conclusion that “GOP voters have abandoned the traditional Republican Party focus on tax cuts, deregulation, and free trade.” As the author of a forthcoming book on the GOP’s working-class realignment, this naturally piqued my interest.

Cards on the table: I appreciate the contribution Cass is making to the conservative policy space, and he was very generous with his time in letting me interview him for the book. I’ve also sparred with online critics of Cass’ work, who I think miss the forest for the trees. Telling American workers the economy is largely working just fine while gesticulating wildly in the direction of some statistic or other is just as politically ruinous when it comes from conservatives as from the Econ Twitter defenders of Bidenomics. Americans currently think the economy is poor. Validating these concerns makes it more likely that conservatives will wield power come 2025.

On the other hand, I …