This essay is a part of The Right Way Forward, Restoring America’s new think tank debate series in which leading conservative institutions argue the defining questions of the post-Trump era. Read about the series here.
Liberal economic policies typically include high taxes, high spending, high levels of regulation, restrictive labor and employment laws, government-sponsored enterprises, subsidies for favored enterprises, price controls, and, until the recent past, higher tariffs. Usually, these are accompanied by money creation to fund the spending, which results in inflation. These policies have a long record of failure both in the United States and abroad. Progressives and socialists typically want this policy mix, but on steroids.
Notwithstanding the rhetoric of liberal, progressive, and, increasingly, conservative politicians in the U.S., these are not new, innovative, or smart policies. Empowering government officials to further intrude into an already heavily regulated economy does not improve the lives of the people who are subject to those policies. More regulation, government ownership of businesses, high spending levels, tariffs and other barriers to international trade, picking winners and losers, and restrictive labor and employment policies impoverish rather than enrich the societies that choose this path.
There is a reason why Americans live substantially better than Europeans. We have a freer, less regulated economy and smaller government. Residents of Mississippi, the U.S. state with the lowest median household income, are still about 20% richer than those of the United Kingdom. Although there are differences in the statistics due to exchange rates and purchasing power parity methodologies, whether measured by median household income or GDP per capita, the U.S. is now doing nearly twice as well as the European Union.
Yet there are increasing calls among “conservatives” to adopt liberal economic policies — to emulate Europe’s failure to deliver for its people. Rebranding these failed policies as conservative and using conservative-sounding rhetoric will not make them more effective. Call it what you will: economic nationalism, industrial policy, compassionate conservatism, “conservative economics,” America first, the new conservatism, or common good conservatism. They have been sold by the Left under the banner of fairness, economic justice, or social justice. They are now being promoted by some who call themselves conservative under the banner of American patriotism, helping working families, reshoring jobs, promoting stronger communities, or advancing human flourishing.
The problem is that liberal economic policies achieve none of these conservative objectives. They actually do the opposite in fairly short order. And the politicians and parties that adopt them are, reasonably enough, punished by voters when things go poorly.
Just ask Canada’s Progressive Conservatives, who in 1993 were crushed, left with only two seats in parliament, and never recovered. Ask the U.K. conservatives, who embraced high taxes, high spending, climate extremism, and wokeism. They lost 251 seats in the 2024 election and are now on life support. Or ask the French conservatives, now known as Les Républicains. After embracing failed economic policies, they do not even hold 10% of the seats in the National Assembly.
Most voters are not ideological. They reward success and punish failure. Big government policies fail, no matter the rhetorical wrapping paper of the day.
It is instructive to read the Democratic Party platforms of 1976-88. The similarity between them and the rhetoric of the “new” conservatives is remarkable. The 1984 Democratic platform called for “a vigorous, open and fair trade policy that strengthens the international economic system; assists adjustment to foreign competition; and recognizes the legitimate interests of American workers, farmers and businesses. We will use trade law and international negotiations to aid U.S. workers, farmers, and businesses injured by unfair trade practices.… Where government initiatives are necessary to save an industry like steel, auto or textiles, we must see that those initiatives meet the needs of the whole community — workers as well as executives, taxpayers and consumers as well as stockholders.… We need industrial strategies to create a cooperative partnership of labor, capital, and management to increase productivity and to make America competitive once more.”
Sound familiar? These policies have failed before, and they will fail again. It is our responsibility to learn from these past mistakes and not to visit their burdens on yet another generation of young workers struggling to raise families.
EDITORIAL: TRUMP’S FOOD STAMP REFORMS ARE WORKING
Respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, and equal protection of the law, combined with a commitment to free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional values, and a strong national defense, built the U.S. into the freest, most prosperous, and most powerful major nation in the world. This is what American conservatives should work to conserve.
Conservatives should not embrace late 20th-century American liberalism and pretend that it is conservatism.
David Burton is a senior research fellow at the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom Foundation.