The Economic Theory Behind J.D. Vance’s Populism
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Published 2024-07-17
There’s something happening here — a real shift in the Republican Party. But at the same time, its official platform, and the conservative policy document Project 2025, is littered with the usual proposals for tax cuts, deregulation and corporate giveaways. So is this ideological battle substantive or superficial?
Oren Cass served as Mitt Romney’s domestic policy director in the 2012 presidential race. But since then, Cass has had an evolution; he founded the conservative economic think tank American Compass, which has been associated with J.D. Vance and other populist-leaning Republicans, like Josh Hawley, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton. In this conversation, we discuss what economic populism means to him, what it looks like in policy, and how powerful this faction really is in the Republican Party.
Mentioned:
“The Electric Slide (americancompass.org/the-electric-slide/) ” by Oren Cass
“This Is What Elite Failure Looks Like (www.nytimes.com/2024/07/06/opinion/populism-power-…) ” by Oren Cass
“Budget Model: First Edition (americancompass.org/budget-model-first-edition/) ” by American Compass
Book Recommendations:
The Path to Power (www.robertcaro.org/the-path-to-power) by Robert Caro
Project Hail Mary (www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611060/project-ha…) by Andy Weir
The Green Ember (sdsmith.com/the-green-ember-series/) by S.D. Smith
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast (www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast) . Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs (www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.…) .
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our senior editor is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero.
All Comments (21)
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If you ignore what's going on in this element of the Republican Party out of your reflexive liberal dismissal, you're going to find the next 15-20 years very, very disorienting.
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What Ezra seems to be missing is the current wafer/chip supply chain is complex because we made it complex by expanding and exporting our supply chain.
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We are still cleaning up the George W. Bush era messes. People do not connect the lines of those policies to their lasting problems we see today.
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Always with the feigned concern over non-existent 'free market' volatility: "oh, we can't do 'living wage' or union labor or innovation, etc-- the people won't LIKE higher prices.." 1. As if capitalist corp MONOPOLIES operate in a "free market" economy, vulnerable to consumer demand/choice. 2. As if price increase is unavoidable, that nothing else has room for adjustment, i.e. the multi-deca-millions in exec salaries, stock buybacks...
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I rarely ever comment on anything, but I think this is such a needed conversation and I am glad that Ezra reached out across the aisle to a well spoken guest. This was fantastic, would be great to zoom into nuances as follow ups if possible.
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People need to understand that the mining practices and methods China now uses to refine rare Earth minerals, were pioneered by Federal Grant money right here in the US. Saying things will be too expensive is just a cop out.
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Chip War was written by Chris Miller, he studied History and works at DC Think-Tank that promotes trade. He has absolutely no idea on how Semiconductors are manufactured. Thus his book Chip War should be taken with grain of salt. Also Taiwan, where most chips are made, is not some 3rd world country where people work for pennies.
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The male vocal fry of the host is unbearable.
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Jesus Christ. I’m only 43 years old, and at the 55 minute mark, you guys are talking about your first political memories: being something that happened in the early to mid 90s? How The fall of communism, the fall of the Berlin wall, etc., are all essentially ancient relics from textbooks that are not existent in your actual reality. I’m only 43 years old and I remember All of that as well as stuff going back to the mid 80s. I don’t understand how we have such young experts on topics such as the patterns that may or may not evolve over the course of decades in the realm of politics.
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I’m a newcomer to this channel. Great conversation. Hard, thoughtful questions to a thoughtful guest. A new trend that I was aware of, but feel much more informed about now. Great job.
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Best.Fucking.Debate. I’ve heard in years between 2 people who respect each other’s views regardless of how different they are.
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Thank you both for an instructive and civil discourse. It seems to me that both parties will begin a new competition for the centre. A nascent one admittedly. But my feeling is that the competition will soon really catch fire.
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Interesting guest and conversation. Never heard of this guest. Enjoyed it.
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Is the goal to manufacture the majority of goods consumed by America in America? Would this mean others countries' economies are less dependent on access to the American market? Reduced dependence internationally on the American dollar? Would this reduce America's ability to wield economic power on the international stage? Effectiveness of economic sanctions? What would this do to America's soft/economic power on the world stage?
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complete pipe dream to think that the working class is going to be happy about paying more for anything regardless of policy outcome. let’s be real..
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I'll see an appealing topic but then I have to shut it off after being reminded about how grating and difficult to bear Ezra's voice and demeanour are to listen to.
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It used to be: government should get out of the way and let us make money. Now it is the same exact thing.
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Condescending tone needs work
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5:20 conversation starts
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Robots are coming so the US feels more confident in bringing manufacturing back to the United States. I am concerned about the pollution these new factories will produce.
