Opinion | How Canadian Truckers Brought Peace to the GOP’s Warring Tribes – POLITICO

This might not seem news, except that the Trump era catalyzed an ongoing, intense and sometimes personally nasty debate among writers and thinkers on the right about how much emphasis should be put on freedom. One faction associated with populists, nationalists and various critics of classic liberalism argues that the traditional conservative celebration of freedom has become fetishistic and is now an anachronism that is irrelevant to ordinary people and an obstacle to grappling with the struggles of the working class.

This position has gained adherents in recent years, but it is hard to tell amid the rights reflexive support of a protest movement flying under the banner literally! of freedom.

Indeed, if you were sitting on the couch during prime time anytime over the last 20 years and switched over to Fox News and saw that Sean Hannity was robustly supporting something called the Freedom Convoy, youd think that the planets were in alignment and nothing had ever disturbed the conservative consensus.

The Canadian protest is a unifying moment for the American right. To simplify for the sake of clarity, the populists are drawn to the truckers as representatives of the working class, of a rejection of government by experts, and of a willingness to shock and defy the progressive governing class as embodied by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Limited-government conservatives, on the other hand, tend to sympathize with the opposition to the vaccine mandate on truckers as an irrational, completely unnecessary regulation and with the push to begin lifting Covid restrictions more broadly.

Both elements on the right have denounced Trudeaus invoking of emergency powers. For the populists, the action is a dangerous sign of an impulse to smash anyone crossing elite opinion. For limited-government types, its a dangerous sign of a government that can too easily slip free of constitutional constraints.

It adds up to a kind of populist-inflected libertarianism, with an enhanced accent on cultural combat and class conflict.

It was predictable that the first contact with Biden administration policies would revivify a conservative distrust of government, and pandemic restrictions have supercharged a Do Not Tread on Me response across the right, focused on mandates and shutdowns.

Of course, the GOP has changed over the last decade or so. Trump broke with the conventional post-Reagan Republican rhetoric and elevated national cohesiveness, sovereignty, and strength over and above freedom. He showed that economic conservatives werent the dominant partners in the Republican coalition that many had believed.

Notably, Bidens spending plans get very little Republican support, but the opposition to the red ink is muted compared to the backlash to the early Obama administration agenda, when opposition to debt and governmental aggrandizement were at their high tide on the right.

The sense now is less the government is bankrupting us and more these out-of-touch, self-appointed experts are telling us what to do because they have too much power and like lording it over us, with the press, social media, corporations and nonprofits all on their side.

This gives the opposition to government a distinct culture war charge, although this isnt necessarily new. In the post-World War II conservative coalition, classical liberals and social conservatives united in opposition to big government because it was believed that an overweening government was a threat both to freedom and traditional values.

If this dynamic still holds in a slightly different form, that doesnt mean that there arent going to be intraconservative debates going forward on tax, trade and tech policy, with the populists willing to unabashedly wield government power in pursuit of their policy goals.

The defense of freedom, though, will retain a central place. Consider the politicians who, at this juncture, look to be the future of the conservative opposition in Canada and the U.S.

Pierre Poilievre, whose chances to be the next conservative leader in Canada have been enhanced by the trucker protests, criticized a government that is too big and bossy in his strong video announcing his bid. Ron DeSantis, the early favorite in a 2024 Republican nomination fight should Trump decide not to run touts the successes of the Free State of Florida.

The issues and the emphases might change, but in conservative politics, freedom is unlikely ever to go out of style.

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Opinion | How Canadian Truckers Brought Peace to the GOP's Warring Tribes - POLITICO