Why the Right Went Wrong: ConservatismFrom Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond (87 page)

Obama sent Joe Biden
: Janet Hook, Corey Boles, and Siobhan Hughes, “Congress Passes Cliff Deal,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 2, 2013.

“The commitments we make”
: President Barack Obama, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 2013.

“We of the Republic pledged”
: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1937.

“In the present crisis”
: President Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, delivered January 20, 1981.

“the militias were”
: This and the Stevens quotation are from Michael Waldman,
The Second Amendment: A Biography
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), p. 127; “reflected a popular consensus,” p. 174.

“if Hispanics think”
: Republican National Committee, “Growth and Opportunity Project,” p. 8.

Senate passed an immigration reform
: 113 Congress, S.744, June 27, 2013.

“The bipartisan bill”
: Statement by President Obama on Senate passage of immigration reform, June 27, 2013.

“Obamacare isn’t working”
: “Cruz: Democrats ‘Want People Hooked on Obamacare So it Can Never Be Unwound,’ ”
RealClearPolitics
, July 24, 2013.

“The Seinfeld Shutdown”
: Marc A. Thiessen, “The Seinfeld Shutdown,”
Washington Post,
October 4, 2013.

“It’s a dead end”
: Rosalind Helderman and Ed O’Keefe, “Less-Conservative Republicans May Be Key to Solving Federal Fiscal Drama,”
Washington Post
, October 1, 2013.

800,000 government employees
: Brad Plumer, “The Nine Most Painful Impacts of a Government Shutdown,”
Washington Post
, October 3, 2013.

All 198 Democrats
: Clerk of the House of Representatives, “Final Vote Results for Roll Call 550,” October 16, 2013.

The turning point
: “Study #13413,” NBC News and
Wall Street Journal
, October 10, 2013,
http://online.wsj.com//files/06/13/86/f061386/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll10072013.pdf
.

“Of course, you’ve probably”
: President Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President on the Affordable Care Act,” delivered October 21, 2013.

At a news conference
: Chris Good, “President Obama’s ‘Red Line’: What He Actually Said About Syria and Chemical Weapons,” ABC News, August 26, 2013.

Julie Pace of the Associated Press
: “Reporter to Obama: Has This Been the Worst Year of Your Presidency?,”
RealClearPolitics
, December 20, 2013.

Boehner himself
: Matt Berman, “Boehner: Conservative Groups’ Reaction to Budget Deal is ‘Ridiculous,’ ”
National Journal
, December 11, 2013.

Issa’s report
: Michael Hiltzik, “Issa’s Big Dud: No White House Connection to IRS ‘Scandal,’ ”
The Los Angeles Times
, December 24, 2014.

“What I find to be the greatest”
: Sean Sullivan and Robert Costa, “The Tea Party’s Senate Primary Hopes Down to One Final Faceoff in Tennessee,”
Washington Post
, August 7, 2014.

backed by more than $2.4 million
: Reid J. Epstein, “Tea Party–Backed Ben Sasse Wins Nebraska GOP Senate Primary,”
Wall Street Journal
, May 14, 2014.

316,124 out of 1,152,180 registered Nebraskans
: Office of Secretary of State John A. Gale, “17 Nebraska Counties Exceed 50 Percent Turnout in Primary,” May 14, 2014.

Sasse won with
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “The Two GOP Establishments,”
Washington Post
, May 14, 2014.

Salon
’s Jim Newell
: Jim Newell, “Tea Party’s Next Big War: Nebraska’s Confusing GOP Senate Primary,”
Salon
, May 13, 2014.

As the
Atlantic
’s Molly Ball:
Molly Ball, “What Ben Sasse’s Win in the Nebraska Republican Primary Means,”
Atlantic
, May 14, 2014.

“This primary season”
: Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru, “Establishment Tea,”
National Review
, July 7, 2014.

The Tea Party as “organic movement”
: Chris Wallace, “Key Republican Lawmakers on GOP Agenda for New Congress,” Fox News, November 7, 2010.

And in Iowa, Representative Bruce Braley
: “Braley Scoffs: Grassley Just an Iowa farmer Who Never Went to Law School,” YouTube video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH51LNpqZ94
.

Her endorsers in the primary
: James Hohmann, “Joni Ernst Wins Iowa GOP Senate Primary,”
Politico
, June 3, 2014.

“A Fair Shot for Everyone”
: “Senate Democrats Unveil 2014 Agenda: ‘A Fair Shot for Everyone,’ ” Democratic Policy and Communications Center, March 26, 2014.

“We have a border that’s so porous”
: Greg Sargent, “Scott Brown: Anyone with Ebola Can ‘Walk’ Across Our ‘Porous’ Border,”
Washington Post
, October 14, 2014.

Ebola ran 734 times
: Margaret Talev, “Ebola Spikes in Campaign Ads Ahead of Midterms,”
Bloomberg Politics
, October 28, 2014.

At 39.5 perenct turn out in 2014
: “2014 November General Election Turnout Rates,” United States Elections Project, last updated December 30, 2014,
http://www.electproject.org/2014g
.

Some 13 percent of 2014
: Ruy Teixeira and John Halprin, “The Political Consequences of the Great Recession,” Center for American Progress, November 6, 2014.

A postelection survey
: Robert P. Jones, Daniel Cox, Juhem Navarro-Rivera, E. J. Dionne Jr., and William A. Galston, “What Americans Want from Immigration Reform in 2014,” PRRI/Brookings, June 2014.

He offered the sports metaphor
: “Obama: ‘My Presidency Is Entering the Fourth Quarter and Interesting Stuff Happens in the Fourth Quarter,”
RealClearPolitics
, December 19, 2014.

“At every step”
: President Barack Obama, State of the Union address, delivered January 20, 2015.

“When the American people”
: Benjamin Landy, “McConnell Urges Compromise Amid Divided Government,” MSNBC, November 5, 2014.

“For too long”
: Stephen Dinan, “Landslide! Republicans Capture Senate and Prized Governorships,”
Washington Times
, November 4, 2014.

“too many are working harder”
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “What Change Sounds Like,”
Washington Post
, January 18, 2015.

“all Americans to rise up”
: Peter Beinart, “Do Americans Have a ‘Right to Rise’?,”
Atlantic
, January 8, 2015.

American Dreams:
Marco Rubio,
American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone
(New York: Penguin Group, 2015).

“The solutions of the thirties”
: Randall Rothenberg,
The Neo-Liberals: Creating the New American Politics
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984), p. 27.

15. REFORMING CONSERVATISM OR TRUMPING IT

“disrupt the status quo”
: Michael A. Needham, “Building a Real Reform Mandate,”
National Affairs
(Winter, 2015),
http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/building-a-real-reform-mandate
.

criticizes the left’s
: Yuval Levin, “A Conservative Governing Vision,”
National Review
, May 28, 2014.

to see Karl Rove praise the movement
: Karl Rove, “The New Republican Reformers,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 26, 2014.

This is the lesson
: Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, “A Conservative Vision of Government,”
National Affairs
, Winter 2014.

critique of the Tea Party’s view
: Ryan Cooper, “Reformish Conservatives,”
Washington Monthly
, May/June 2013.

“unemployment crisis”
: Michael R. Strain, “A Jobs Agenda for the Right,”
National Affairs,
Winter 2014.

progressive arguments about inequality
: Senator Marco Rubio, “Reclaiming the Land of Opportunity: Conservative Reforms for Combatting Poverty,” delivered January 8, 2014.

Some on the right
: Gerson and Wehner, “A Conservative Vision of Government.”

Barro a “conservative Whig”
: “Ask Josh Barro Anything: The Recent Revolution of Conservatism,”
The Dish
, June 5, 2013.

Frum’s heresy included
: David Frum, “Waterloo,”
Frum Forum,
March 21, 2010.

An earlier apostate was Bruce Bartlett
: Bruce Bartlett,
Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy
(New York: Doubleday, 2006).

The book grew out
: Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, “The Party of Sam’s Club,”
Weekly Standard
, November 14, 2005.

Douthat and Salam acknowledged the challenges
: Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam,
Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream
(New York: Anchor Books, 2009), pp. 2–11.

“subsidies for carbon removal”
: Ibid., p. 217.

the libertarian conservative
: Charles Murray,
Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980
(New York: Basic Books, 1984); Murray,
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010
(New York: Crown Forum, 2013).

His 2014 book
: Yural Levin,
The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left
(New York: Basic Books, 2014), p. 229.

In an important 2006 article
: Yuval Levin, “Putting Parents First,”
Weekly Standard
, December 4, 2006.

Ibid.

a holdout’s case for compassionate conservatism
: Michael Gerson,
Heroic Conservatism
(New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 287.

steering the Republican Party
: E. J. Dionne Jr., “Can the GOP Find its Center?,”
Washington Post
, November 28, 2006.

an essay in the Reformicons’ 2014 manifesto
: Ramesh Ponnuru, “Room to Grow: Conservative Reforms for a Limited Government and a Thriving Middle Class,” YG Network.

Arthur Brooks, who had once embraced
: Arthur C. Brooks, “Be Open-Handed Toward Your Brothers,”
Commentary
, February 1, 2014.

He elaborated on these themes
: Arthur Brooks,
The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America
(New York: Broadside Books, 2015); and
The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future
(New York: Basic Books, 2010).

“make our case”
: Brooks,
The Conservative Heart,
p. 215.

One of the boldest Reformicon thinkers
: Henry Olsen, “Conservatism for the People,”
National Affairs
, Winter 2014.

The headline of a November 2014 article
: Henry Olsen and Peter Wehner, “If Ronald Reagan Were Alive Today, He Would Be 103 Years Old,”
Commentary
, Winter 2014.

“put a stop to the explosion of liberal”
: Yuval Levin, “In Praise of the House,”
Weekly Standard
(January 2, 2012),
http://m.weeklystandard.com/articles/praise-house_614770.html?nopager=1
. See also Levin, “A Tale of Two Budgets,”
Weekly Standard
(April 2, 2012),
http://m.weeklystandard.com/articles/tale-two-budgets_634420.html?nopager=1
.

“Our modern-day economy”
: Senator Marco Rubio, “Reclaiming the Land of Opportunity: Conservative Reforms for Combatting Poverty,” delivered January 8, 2014.

Sharon Parrott of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
: Sharon Parrott, “Rubio Proposal to Replace EITC Would Likely Come at Expense of Working-Poor Families with Children,” Off the Charts, January 9, 2014.

add an astonishing $11.8 trillion to the debt
: Citizens for Tax Justice, “Marco Rubio’s Tax Plan Gives Top 1% an Average Tax Cut of More Than $220,000 a Year,” November 3, 2015,
http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2015/11/marco_rubios_tax_plan_gives_top_1_an_average_tax_cut_of_more_than_220000_a_year.php#.VjkM_GviNSE
.

“The new Rubio-Lee plan”
: Jonathan Chait, “The Fight for the Soul of the Republican Party Is Over: The Rich Have Won Again,”
New York
(March 5, 2015).

“too far in the right direction”
: Ramesh Ponnuru, “Marco Rubio’s $6 Trillion Problem,”
Bloomberg View,
October 28, 2015,
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-28/marco-rubio-s-6-trillion-problem
.

the detailed tax proposal he issued
: Jeb Bush, “My Tax Overhaul to Unleash 4% Growth,”
Wall Street Journal
(September 8, 2015).

on average by 11.6 percent
: John D. McKinnon, “Top 1% Are Biggest Winners in Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan,”
Wall Street Journal
, September 10, 2015.

Jeb Bush cuts his own taxes
: Harry Stein, “Jeb Bush Wants to Cut Taxes for Jeb Bush,” Center for American Progress Action Fund (September 11, 2015),
https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/tax-reform/news/2015/09/11/120930/jeb-bush-wants-to-cut-taxes-for-jeb-bush/
; Catherine Rampell, “Jeb Bush’s Tax Plan Is Great for Jeb Bush,”
Washington Post
(September 10, 2015),
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-jeb-bush-would-reduce-his-own-tax-bill/2015/09/10/e5ed6744-57dd-11e5-8bb1-b488d231bba2_story.html
.

“a much less regulated insurance market”
: Margot Sanger-Katz, “Health Proposals by Walker and Rubio Are Much Less Concerned About the Poor,” “The Upshot,”
New York Times
(August 18, 2015),
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/upshot/walker-and-rubio-health-proposals-are-less-concerned-about-poor.html?referrer=&_r=0
.

Walker plan and the poor
: Jeffrey Young and Jonathan Cohn, “Scott Walker and the Trouble with Obamacare Replacement Plans,”
Huffington Post
(August 18, 2015),
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-walker-obamacare-replacement_55d32f11e4b0ab468d9e4aa4?kvcommref=mostpopular
.