This isn't the end of the old GOP

Trumpism still has an uncertain future

A liberal journalist called three days ago to speak about J.D. Vance and why his nomination to the vice president mattered. I rattled off how Vance stood for a different type of Republican, one in the same image as Pat Buchanan, Calvin Coolidge, and Robert Taft. She snapped back, “Yeah, but that’s the Republican Party that’s been in charge since Trump took over.”

I thought maybe she was a one-off, just one more liberal who didn’t understand the divide between the grassroots and elected officials. Alas, I was wrong.

Before J.D. even took the stage on Wednesday night or Trump concluded his 18-hour monologue on Thursday, tweets and articles were being written that a convention that didn’t have gay marriage or abortion its platform invited “influencer” Amber Rose and Teamster President Sean O’Brien to speak marked the end of the traditional Republican Party.

My friend Meghan McCain called it “a funeral” for her brand of center-right Republicans.

Yet, if this is the age of a populist, America First GOP… not that many elected Republicans believe it.

J.D. Vance’s nomination to Vice President is important because he is an apostate to politics on the Hill. Take the three big issues that populists divert from traditional Republicans: immigration, trade, and foreign policy.