So says George Will today.
Yes, but George Will is an IDIOT.
“Maybe, but without minority votes the GOP would have to win 65% of the White vote to win, and they haven’t won that big a share since Reagan.”
This is why conservatism, as a national ideology is dead over the long term. We lost in 1965 when we allowed Ted Kennedy to place the country on the demographic path that it is now on. Buchanan spelled it out back in Death of the West in 2001, and there’s nothing we can do now to change it.
However, over the near term, there is an opportunity for a candidate like Trump to capture something like 65% or even 70% of the white vote by appealing to working class whites. Note that Romney got 59% of the white vote as a corporatist. The candidate who can increase the white vote total over that number has to be a populist: someone willing to take on immigration, “free” trade, and yes, someone willing to raise taxes somewhat on the wealthy, while holding onto libertarians by deemphasizing social issues.
Call it “white populism” or “traditionalism”. It gives us brief window, maybe four election cycles if we’re lucky, to make some structural changes to prepare the country for the post-America America of 2050.