For those keeping score, the modern Republican Party now believes in big, federal government just as much, if not more than the Democratic Party. It also doesn’t care about the Constitution. If you care about principled limits on gov’t & federalism, there isn’t a party for you.

And don’t for a second let the authoritarian statists on the right, fully smitten with their orange king, tell you that we’re just a bunch of libertarian purists. That’s just the lazy retort of once-conservatives made uncomfortable by those who didn’t sell out their consciences.

Liberal, constitutional democracy is not libertarian purism, folks—no matter how many times someone at The Federalist or First Things writes 500 vapid words saying it is.

The dirty secret is that a liberal, constitutional republic is still a good idea. It’s not dead. It’s not outmoded. It’s the single-best approach to government yet devised for free people. It doesn’t bat a thousand, but it’s the best player the league has ever seen—by far.

There is nothing about some “conservative” version of authoritarianism-lite that’s consistent with the American view that we’re all created equal w/ God-given rights that precede & preclude government action.

Anyone who argues otherwise is trying to lull you into subservience.

Conservatives should flatly reject the rump caucus of bloggers who, thesauruses in hand, string together jumbled five-syllable adjectives in an attempt to give Trumpism an air of intellectual heft. There is no idea there. It’s just post hoc rationalization for statism they like.

I’m sick and tired of liberal, constitutional gov’t not having vocal defenders on the right in public office. The whole bench of supposed Republican leaders—from Haley to Cotton to Hawley to Cruz—seems to think they need to show their leg to the authoritarian, own the libs crowd.

If Trump loses in 2020, the “next great Republican hope” won’t be a Haley or a Cruz. It’ll be someone with the credibility & conviction to fight for a liberal, constitutional republic—who vows to run gov’t in service of a set of principles rather than a set axes to grind.