Phil writes of Trump’s total abandonment of pro-lifers. This is but the latest step in Trump’s broader humiliation of social conservatives and New Right organizations, a phenomenon that both Kayla Bartsch and I have written about. Notes Phil: “The idea that his administration would be ‘great’ for ‘reproductive rights’ is hard to interpret in any other way than as an affirmatively pro-choice statement.”
I would take it a step further. I think it’s impossible to interpret this as anything other than an affirmatively pro-choice statement, at least for those who have a modicum of respect for the virtue of intellectual honesty. Unfortunately, that description doesn’t apply to many on the New Right, and so it’s not worth waiting for your MAGA friends to condemn Trump’s embrace of social leftism. They aren’t going to. They will vote for him no matter what, and I mean that quite literally.
This has me thinking about an interesting question: Is it possible that the “socially conservative” New Right, rather than merely failing to fight for or achieve its policy goals, is actually affirmatively pushing our politics further to the left on social issues? If you consider the game from Trump’s point of view, embracing social leftism might be rational. This is because Trump knows that the leading voices of purported social conservatism would never abandon him. From his perspective, they have no leverage. And he’s right. By becoming unabashedly pro-choice, Trump plays to the center of the electorate without sacrificing his base, because there is nothing he could do to sacrifice his base.
Now consider an alternate reality in which socially conservative intellectual leaders cared more about their principles than about the cult of Trump. In this world, where they praise Trump when he does things they agree with and publicly shame him when he doesn’t, social conservatives have leverage over Trump, because their votes have to be earned. Would Trump have issued his endorsement of abortion in this world? I don’t think so.
One of the favorite MAGA tropes is that non-Trumpy conservatives are weak. They haven’t “actually conserved anything,” you see. But recent events have solidified my impression that New Right intellectuals are the weakest group in our political discourse these days. Their spines are made out of jelly. Time after time, they have chosen Trump over their professed principles. Because of that choice, the Left will continue to dominate them for years to come.