Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images
The 250th anniversary of the ‘Wealth of Nations’ is next month. Republicans ought to read the book.
Much of the chatter in political circles these days concerns what the Republican Party might look like after Donald Trump—an eventuality that could arrive sooner than the president appreciates if his party loses control of Congress this November.
Others are less concerned with Mr. Trump’s political successor than they are with the future of free-market conservatism. An earlier generation of Democrats and Republicans found agreement on basic economic principles. “Tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now,” President John F. Kennedy said in 1962. How many prominent Democrats still talk like that?
At least since the Reagan era, the GOP has been the main vehicle for popularizing and advancing economic freedom. And though there are similarities between the Trump and Reagan presidencies—both men cut taxes, reduced regulations and connected with traditionally Democratic voters—philosophical comparisons between the two can quickly become strained.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
______________________
Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images