I have made no secret that I am not a fan of Donald Trump. I have written extensively about my support for impeachment, and I despise his actions involving the Kurds. He has imposed near-total control over a party that once supported principled men like Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump’s sway over the GOP has brought nothing but ill-fortune.
But Donald Trump is not the only concerning GOP trend in Washington. Even beyond the President, there has been sudden support for big government and regulatory action among Republicans. This is best exemplified by the many bills proposed and sponsored by Mr. Josh Hawley, junior senator of Missouri.
At first glance, Senator Hawley represents the future of the GOP. He is young, well-spoken and articulate, brings new ideas to the tables, and is remarkably hard-working (he’s introduced 38 bills since taking office last January). He would seem to be the kind of Senator the GOP desperately needs, and the perfect man to represent the party. I could easily see Hawley serving as Senate Majority/Minority Leader for the Republican Party, and possibly running for President at some point.
However, these traits mean nothing if Senator Hawley fails to hold to basic conservative values.
One of the bills he sponsors, the HIRE Act, is a blatant attempt to use federal agencies as jobs programs for distressed parts of the nation. His SMART Act would be a massive overreach of government into the private workings of social media companies. His End Support for Internet Censorship Act, which would result in the opposite effect of what the title implies, further reflects his animus for social media. He has sponsored a bill to regulate pay-to-win options in video games. He supports legislation that would restrict what technology companies can ship to China based on “national security reasons.”
None of these bills are remotely conservative. They all run counter to either basic constitutional principles or the ideas of liberty upon which the nation was founded. Indeed, Senator Hawley has been making a name for himself by taking critical ultra-regulatory stances on the freedoms of US-based tech companies, and specifically social media companies such as Facebook.
But what makes the trend that Senator Hawley represents so concerning isn’t merely the implications of his many regulatory bills. The growing influence of Senator Hawley’s style of Republican, unlike Donald Trump’s fleeting phenomenon, may very well represent the Republican Party’s future direction, a direction that will steadily unmoor GOP politics from Reaganite conservatism.
If conservatives want to retake their party, they must pay attention to more than the ramblings of Donald Trump. We will have to counter articulate arguments from Republicans like Senator Hawley who represent a serious divergence from conservative political ideals. We will have to be well-read and respond in an equally articulate manner to counter this disturbing trend.
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