A Conservative's Take on the Chaotic State of the Republican Party
About this episode
Conservative writer Michael Brendan Dougherty assesses the Republican Party after the 2022 midterms and Donald Trump's 2024 announcement. He argues the GOP suffers from a vacuum of authority: with no leader who can discipline it, the party functions as a coalition of voters rather than a coherent set of ideas, reshaped by the realignment of college-educated voters away from it. The discussion covers the Florida model under Ron DeSantis, the party's post-policy turn toward pure opposition, the failure of the Republican establishment to constrain Trump, and the strange incentives facing figures like Kevin McCarthy. Dougherty also reflects on the conservative movement's intellectual history, its relationship to populism, and whether anything can rebuild a conservatism of restraint in an era of online politics.