Nearly forty years ago, US President Ronald Reagan summed up the Republican party mindset with his proclamation that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Markets, not politicians, knew best, and the more power the private sector had relative to the public one, the better.
Not so these days. Consider conservative presidential primary contender Vivek Ramaswamy during the recent Republican debates. Responding to former vice-president Mike Pence’s insistence that Americans (and implicitly the party) didn’t need a new identity or new solutions, Ramaswamy snapped, “It is not morning in America. We live in a dark moment, and we have to confront the fact . . .”
Some Republicans are talking as much about market failures as solutions these days. Consider the on-again, off-again Trump-supporting conservative columnist Sohrab Ahmari, whose recent book, Tyranny, Inc: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty — and What To Do About It, has been praised by progressives.