Welcome to Thursday’s edition of Washington Secrets. We spent Wednesday getting our FreeCon or something, hanging out with one of the factions in the Republican Party preparing for what comes after Donald Trump. Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) delivered a “fireside chat” — there was no fire or fireside — in which he said he wished things “sucked more.” That could be the boldest political slogan that Secrets has ever heard.
MAGA, “America First,” paleoconservatism, integralism, Christian nationalism, social conservatism, the disruptor Right, and fusionism all the way through to the Never Trumpers: The conservative Right is not short of labels to describe all its different factions and beliefs.
On Wednesday, it was the turn of Freedom Conservatives to gather in an auditorium in Washington to take stock and plot a course ahead.
Once upon a time, they did not even need a label. Their mix of free markets and liberal trade, small government and low taxes, foreign restraint, and the importance of individual liberty was simply known as the Republican Party.
Things are more complicated today.
Their annual conference kicked off with a session that simply asked, “What is Freedom Conservatism?”
Avik Roy, of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, summed it up by saying that opportunity through freedom was the best way to reduce the cost of living and restore the nation’s fiscal sustainability.
“That’s how we win,” he said, before lumping together a Left and Right that have given up on classical liberal, free-market values. “The entire business model of our post-liberal compatriots on either side of the aisle is to exclude a giant chunk of Americans from our shared enterprise.
“They don’t believe it’s possible for all of us to achieve great things together. Instead, they believe in rewarding their friends and punishing their enemies.”
The schedule of the day reflected the challenge faced by the FreeCons. “What has conservatism ever conserved?” one panel asked. Another pondered how to build a winning coalition.
After the fireworks of a CPAC or Turning Point USA, it made for a polite, earnest discussion. There was a single MAGA cap, black rather than red, in attendance, outnumbered by the bowties.
No one cheered. Instead, smart lines received a polite round of applause.
Above it all hung the shadow of one colossal figure.
Tim Chapman, from Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom, said the quiet part out loud when he described the nation as being in the 10th of 12 years dominated by “one central personality.”
“I think the influence of the president, even though it seems to be at its zenith — and in many ways you could argue it is, especially with the primaries this week and whatnot — but that influence will wane, and now it’s time for conservatives to think about building a post-Trump conservatism,” he said.
These voices and their funders have been sidelined under Trump. But the money is still there. Many of the speakers had ties to the Koch Network, the sprawling political empire built by Charles and David Koch, and based on oil money and free-market ideology.
And they still have a handful of prominent voices.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the keynote speaker, summed up the sentiment in the room when he expressed his general disbelief at where the congressional Republican Party has landed.
He reserved particular scorn for Trump’s plan to ban major corporate buyers from purchasing single-family residential properties. He said that would slash the value of people’s homes by 20% overnight.
“What Republican would have ever been for that 20 years ago?” he asked. “And now the majority of our caucus is for it.”
The people in the room, he said, were vital to rebuilding the Republican Party around ideas rather than a single personality.
“Hopefully, you are that remnant that still believe in capitalism, believe in trade, believe in the principles of limited government. We can’t be a cult of one person,” Paul said.
“We can have disagreements, but we can’t have this monolithic cult of absolute loyalty to one person.”
There were no cheers or whoops. Instead, there was the very loudest applause of the day.
Rich McCormick wishes it sucked more
Not content with writing one book, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) revealed to the Freedom Conservative audience that he is writing two in parallel. The first sounds like a conventional political book — part memoir, part world according to McCormick, part how to fix things such as healthcare without raising taxes — and is provisionally titled In Pursuit of Happiness.
He said he was enjoying the process so much that a second book would come right after his first.
“It’s going to be a little more quirky and funny,” he said. “It’s called I Wish It Sucked More.”
That sure sounds like a big vote-winner, right?
Then he described where the name came from. It is an expression from his time in the Marine Corps and the Navy, he explained.
“There’s a few different kinds of people,” he said, such as the aviators who look outside when it’s raining, and they say, “It looks like it sucks down there.”
There’s a chap drinking coffee in a tent, he continued, who looks out from his shelter and says the same, or the infantry guy with an M16, with the same thought.
“Then you got the one guy coming out of the water, he’s got the Ka bar [utility knife] in his mouth, he’s looking around, and he’s almost buried up to his neck, and he goes: ‘I wish it sucked more.’”
Facing adversity, he explained, is part of the path to success. And embracing the toughest of tests, even if they end in failure, is the key to winning your future, whether the special forces operator in his tale or an entrepreneur building a business.
“We always say in the military: Embrace the suck,” he said.
Which is something of a gift to reviewers and their headlines!
Washington Post writer gets warm welcome
One of the warmest moments of the day came during the introductions to the “What has conservatism ever conserved?” session.
“To discuss this question today, we have Dominic Pino of the Washington Post,” said Iain Murray, vice president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
“I will say that again, Dominic Pino of the Washington Post.”
A warm titter ran through the auditorium at the idea of a Washington Post editor being welcome at such a conservative event. But Pino is a new type of Post writer. He recently joined its editorial pages from the National Review, as the Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper tries to broaden its appeal beyond a liberal readership.
Lunchtime reading
Why Thomas Massie lost: Sean Davis at the Federalist says the Kentucky congressman only has himself to blame.
Gerrymandering isn’t enough for the GOP: Karl Rove’s midterm assessment in the Wall Street Journal is already being shared around by Democratic campaign operatives.
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