Morning Wire - Republican Revolution: Are Conditions Ripe for a Conservative Resurgence? | Saturday Extra

Episode Date: July 22, 2023

Longtime political observers say the conditions are ripe for a conservative cultural resurgence. In this episode, we speak with Kimberly Strassell, author of The Biden Malaise, about the parallels between the Biden administration and that of President Jimmy Carter. She argues that the conditions that led to the Reagan revolution in the 80’s could lead to a similar republican revolution today. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As President Biden struggles in the polls, long-time political observers say the conditions are right for a conservative cultural resurgence. In this episode, we speak with an author who's noted the parallels between President Biden and former President Carter. And we discussed the eerily similar conditions that led to the Reagan Revolution of the 80s that could be playing out again today. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, July 22nd, and this is an extra edition of Mycuit. Morning Wire. Joining us now is Kimberly Strassel. Strassell is a member of the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal and is the author of the Biden Malays. Kimberly, thanks so much for coming on today. Hi, Georgia. Thanks for having me. Now, you've written this new book, the Biden Malays, that

compares the current Biden administration to President Jimmy Carter's presidency. What are the most striking similarities between the two? When you think about it, it's really remarkable. the eerie echoes between these two administrations that are separated by almost 50 years. There's the obvious, obvious ones, including the inflation numbers. Both presidents had very high inflation, have struggled with it, energy prices under both of them. Foreign policy debacles of one type or the other, often from some of the same actors, for instance, Russia, Something that I think people maybe are a little bit less aware of in terms of comparisons. Immigration, for instance, we obviously have had some trouble with unchecked migration across

our southern border. The last president who had a major influx of immigrants to the United States was Jimmy Carter with the Marial Boat Lift out of Cuba. And it really goes on and on, whether it be crime, whether it be some of the cultural fights we're having at the moment, over race, for instance. gender rights. The similarities between the two are just striking. Now, would you say these similarities can mostly be attributed to the environment they're coming into, or is it more to do with their governing philosophy that's manifesting a lot of these similarities? Yes, so this is where it gets

really interesting, because for all the comparisons you can make between the two of them, one of the points the book really hits hard is that it's a little bit unfair to Jimmy Carter. And here's why. Jimmy Carter inherited a lot of the problems he got. People forget. that the entirety of the 1970s was what we call the great inflation, and it was affecting countries around the world. Inflation, the levels that we're seeing right now were about what Jimmy Carter inherited. Now, he made it much worse because of his policies, but he inherited that. He inherited an energy market where United States did not have a lot of domestic supplies where we'd already had a global oil shock. He inherited a very aggressive environment in terms of the Cold War.

Now, again, he did a lot of things that made all of these worse, often because he believed, in my mind, that government was the answer to everything. Joe Biden, and this is why it's a little unfair, Joe Biden actually inherited an economy that was turning the corner after COVID. It was ready to roar back. The United States was at the top of its game in terms of energy independence and it's a newfound leadership in oil and gas supplies. And that's where I think it's important to make distinctions. Because whereas Jimmy Carter inherited a lot of things and made some poor decisions, Joe Biden inherited a pretty amazing situation. He also had all the lessons of Jimmy Carter.

And yet he took proactive steps that really damaged the economy, the spending, which has made such a difference to inflation, his war on oil and gas and fossil fuel producers. And, you know, some of his foreign policy decisions, such as his rapid and unprisonable, president had withdrawal from Afghanistan, which really hurt them with the public. And I think the United States standing in the world. Another comparison you made is that both Biden and Carter promised to govern as moderates. That was the platform they ran on. But when they arrived in office, you argued that they've governed far to the left of what they've promised. Can you give some examples of what you mean by that? Yeah, you know, Carter history is so fun here. As a lot of people

might remember, Carter was a governor of Georgia. He wasn't very well known. Certainly a lot younger than Joe Biden. He was 52, but he ran in a very crowded primary, much as Joe Biden did in 2020. And he ran against a bunch of quite liberal members of his party, including Jerry Brown and California, Senator Mo Udall. And he very much played up the fact he said he was a fiscal conservative. He is a very religious man, Jimmy Carter. He talked a lot about values that resonated a great deal with a country that was still reeling from Watergate and what many felt was the corruption of the Nixon administration. Similarly, Joe Biden did much the same. Remember, much of the field in 2019 and 2020 were progressive senators, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders,

and Biden presented himself as a more centrist version of these and was ultimately saved in the primaries by more southern conservative Democratic voters when the primaries finally got down, for instance, to South Carolina. But both of them, when getting in office, they kind of of abandoned that centrism. And, you know, for instance, one of Jimmy Carter's first thing, despite claiming he was a fiscal conservative, he engaged in a large stimulus that he said was going to help with unemployment. Instead, it fed in deflation. Similarly, Biden, we've never seen such levels of spending as we did in his first couple of years in office. I think on the culture, Jimmy Carter, for instance, was one of the first presidents to really start putting more ideological

judges on the benches. Obviously, this question of the Supreme Court, Biden, he's really lint in on culture wars, on questions on abortion, for instance. And so this has, I think, surprised a lot of Americans who felt that they were going to get a kind of normality in electing both of these presidents, but feel as though they were sold in some ways a little bit of bill of goods. Now, I want to talk about how both Carter and perhaps Biden are leaving in their wake something of an opportunity for the conservative movement. Obviously, the Reagan revolution came right after the Carter administration. You argue that there is a potential for a Biden successor to kind of ride that same wave. Tell us more about that. What do you think needs to happen for

conservatives to utilize this moment? Sure. If you look at the ground, obviously Biden is extremely unpopular in the polls. That includes among many Americans that consider themselves independence and even some Democrats who are unhappy about the economic situation. We've also seen, and I find this fascinating when you look at recent elections, in particular the midterms, not necessarily in some of those Senate states or some of the more hot-button governors' seats, but in terms of governors' re-elections and in terms of some of the House districts, you're seeing some really interesting shifts among demographics, in particular Hispanics, who seem to be moving away from the Democratic Party, other minorities that are

having second thoughts. This is very similar to what things look like at the end of the Carter administration. You had a lot of, we ended up calling them Reagan Democrats, but longstanding, for instance, union members who felt as though the Democratic Party had become in a place where they were not anymore. And so when this guy came along, Reagan that said, here, I am the place that you feel more comfortable with and I want an inclusive America. I want, I want us to be successful again in that shining city on the hill that really appealed to them. that moment exists for the GOP now. I think they've got some problems. One, they've spent so much time allowing Democrats to make Donald Trump the issue that it's been hard to get voters to look beyond that.

Similarly, I think they tripped themselves up some on the cultural issues, allowed Democrats to really define them in a certain way. But now they're having this primary. And I think that if you can get someone that came along that were optimistic, hopeful, and had a vision for the future, that pulled a few more people in. You had the opportunity to not just win an election, but to shift more some of the parties overall. Now, from your article, it sounds like you don't believe Trump

is the most effective person to lead the conservative revolution. Why do you think Trump is probably not the right person for this? Well, look, one of the things that made Donald Trump successful, one of the reasons I think that a lot of people have better memories, at least from an economic perspective of his time in office, than Biden is because he did pursue very much Reagan policies very successfully. His tax cuts of 2017, his deregulation, all of which you did give us a pretty strongly functioning economy, at least right before COVID.

But, you know, one of the things that was so instrumental that I noted in the book about Reagan's victory was his ability to capture people from the independent part of the aisle and from the Democratic part of the aisle to throw open, as it were, that big tent and say, hey, come on inside. And I think, unfortunately, you know, Donald Trump is much more combative than that. Now, I think everybody in politicians, they need the fight. But for someone on either side of the aisle, by the way, Democrat or Republican, to really forge a bigger consensus, to get us beyond these days where we're having these 50-50 elections every time. You're going to have to have a politician that isn't going to talk about us versus them

that's actually going to say like, hey, we may not agree on everything, but I've got an agenda that I really know is going to help you and your family. Now, the GOP primary field is getting somewhat crowded at this point. Do you think any of the candidates stand out in terms of their ability to maybe accomplish this? I think it will depend on whether or not some of these candidates can figure out how to define themselves. Because when I look at the field, I feel like what we've seen up to now is a lot of Republican candidates who are chasing after Donald Trump voters by presenting themselves as the successor to Trump and someone who will carry on what he is. The thing is, you know, for many of those Trump voters out there, there's about 30, 35 percent

of them, probably about the same base that he had last time around. They're very committed to the former president. And that leaves 60, 65% of the GOP primary that's waiting for these guys to show us their real colors. What are they about? And I think we're still waiting for that to happen, but there's a possibility. Look, you know, someone like Ron DeSantis, he had his own very unique brand of politics in Florida. And that clearly sold. Look at his reelection numbers, which were really quite stunning. You know, you've got a Tim Scott who's very optimistic in his vision of the world. You've got a Vivac Grama Swami who is sort of flooding the zone with ideas. Some of them I think maybe that would resonate a little bit more with Americans and others, but there's

certainly a lot of energy there. Nikki Haley, who's thought about things in some unique ways. So there's a lot of potential there. But I think we've still got some ways to know. Presidential campaigns are always about people testing things out and growing into their candidacies. And I think we're still early enough that we haven't yet seen where everyone is going to grow. All right. Well, Kimberly, thank you so much for coming on and chatting today. Great. Thank you. That was Kimberly Strassel, author of the Biden-Malays. And this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.