The Hollowing Out of the Republican Party

Here are the speakers scheduled for the Republican convention.

Monday

SC Sen. Tim Scott

LA Rep. Steve Scalise

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley

Donald Trump Jr

Tuesday

First Lady Melania Trump

Sec of State Mike Pompeo

KY Sen. Rand Paul

IA Gov. Kim Reynolds

Eric Trump

Tiffany Trump

Wednesday

VP Mike Pence

Second Lady Karen Pence

TN Sen. Marsha Blackburn

IA Sen. Jodi Ernst

SD Gov. Kristi Noem

Thursday

President Donald J. Trump

HHS Sec Ben Carson

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy

AR Sen. Tom Cotton

Ivanka Trump

Now this list isn't nearly as bad as the ones making the rounds on the internet, where there is the standard President, VP, First Lady, Second Lady, along with their congressional leaders like Mitch McConnell, and a smattering of prominent Senators and Governors for both sides, but the Democrats had two past presidents, two past presidential candidates, two former first ladies (I'm double counting here), and the Republicans have a lot of Donald Trump's kids speaking (4 of them), so the Democrats do probably have a distinct advantage here. It is notable that George W Bush and Mitt Romney refused to speak, and George HW Bush and John McCain probably would have refused as well if they had survived, so this does represent a bit of a hollowing out of the Republican Party if some of their key leaders aren't supporting them.  

What has really struck me recently, however, is the hollowing out of their class of policy advisors within the Republican Party, where especially in economics, there are so few qualified people around that they have a lot of trouble with the basic functions of governance (see Trump's negotiations over the stimulus package and his highly problematic executive orders). Back when I first started paying attention to politics in the early 1990s, the Republican Party was the party of business and had controlled the presidency for 20 of the past 24 years, so they had a distinct advantage in the number of prominent policy advisors who had direct experience governing and had a long bench of economists from the world of business and academia to provide intellectual support for their policies.

Clinton basically turned this around in 1992, where he brought in a large team of highly talented economic advisors that made it possible to staff the government for 8 years under Clinton and 8 years under Obama.  Plus the economic policy debates have been won by the liberals over this time where Paul Krugman especially has helped convince us that we don't really need more tax cuts for the rich, that Obamacare really does work, and we need more fiscal stimulus in the depths of a deep recession rather than austerity.  Now that the few conservative economic advisors that are left (like Kevin Hassett) are jumping ship, it's the Democrats with the really long list of policy advisors with direct governing experience, and their success in the policy debates have made it so academic economists generally support the Democratic position on issues now too. 

This complete reversal over the last 28 years in the world of government and academic economists really is noteworthy, and if the Republicans want to continue being a viable party, they need to do a better job cultivating the talent that would allow themselves to effectively govern.  Bluster and propaganda can keep you going for a while, but eventually the Republicans need some governing successes, and these have been few and far between for the last two Republican presidents.  This does not seem to be a priority for Republicans right now, but maybe once Trump no longer controls the cult of personality that has become the Republican Party, maybe they can move on and find ways to govern more effectively in the future.