A Few Reasons MAGA Conservatism Has Never Made Any Sense
If we want to make America great, we need an updated understanding of the economy.
The jobs of the future aren’t going to come from industries that belong to a fading past. Trump’s promises to revive coal and protect steel reflect an image of the economy and sources of employment that comes from a half-century ago.
Coal is in the midst of an inexorable decline because of technological change, quite apart from environmental regulation; slapping tariffs on imported steel raises the price of inputs for other manufacturers and makes their goods less competitive.
If we want to make America great, we need to avoid a declining and aging population.
Child-bearing in the United States has fallen below the replacement rate; in 26 states, there are more deaths than births among the white population. MAGA's opposition to immigration compounds the danger. The higher birth rate among immigrants is a blessing; it helps counteract the falling birth rate of the native born.
MAGA supporters ought to recognize that they will need enough workers to pay into Social Security while they're collecting it. So, if for no other reason they should favor immigration reforms that legalize the status of the undocumented who have long been here and that welcome immigrants in the future.
If we want to make America great, we need to support science and the universities, not undermine them.
The conservative antagonism to knowledge-producing institutions makes no sense from the standpoint even of people who will never set foot in them. There is no economic alternative to investing in advanced research and education.
That’s true not only for familiar reasons: but new knowledge will be the basis for future growth, also new knowledge is needed to regulate emerging technologies in the public interest.
We are entering a dangerous era with the advances in artificial intelligence, big data, and other fields. Trump’s backward-looking conservatism has nothing to say on those subjects.
If we want to make America great, we have to face up to environmental realities.
Denying climate change won’t stop it from happening, but it is blocking us from making necessary adjustments in our way of life and necessary investments to limit global warming and prepare for changes that can no longer be averted.
If the Republican Party wasn’t so deeply tied to the fossil-fuel industry, perhaps it could free itself to confront the challenges posed by rising temperatures and rising sea levels. But precisely because the party is beholden to those interests, it is incapable of making America both green and great—the only way America's future can be great.
If we want to make America great, we need partners in the rest of the world.
MAGA conservatism is not only backward-looking but inward-looking. It assumes that the United States was once great because it could push other countries around. But the real greatness came from alliances and cooperation.
Globalism isn’t a conspiracy; it’s a necessity in a world with highly integrated economies, facing climate change, and trying to contain the risks from nuclear weapons and terrorism.
If liberals and progressives wanted to, they could make a much more persuasive case that their policies would “make America great again.” But the overtones of that slogan are ugly.
“Greatness” is not as great as justice. Justice is greater than "just us." Those MAGA hats belong in a museum as a reminder to future generations of how many Americans in the early 21st century was unable to cope with change and struck out blindly against it.
The next America has to find a path to national renewal that lives up to what is best in our traditions.
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