If Nikki Haley or Mike Pence forcefully make the Case for Reagan-Goldwater Conservatism, Trump and DeSantis will be Exposed

Republicans could debate whether they will be a party of hard right authoritarianism

Just the other morning, Joe Scarborough on MSNBC's Morning Joe program, was opining about how Florida Governor run DeSantis is not really conservative in his governing ideology. Scarborough, who was elected to congress in 1994 as a Newt Gingrich Republican, is more of an advocate of the Reagan Goldwater style of limited government conservative republicanism. He was a solid conservative by year 2000 standards, having received a 95 percent lifetime rating from the American conservative union.

Discover explained how the governing style of DeSantis, including using the force of big government to go to battle against Disney, and dictating policy to local school boards on things like mask mandates and educational content including alleged teaching of critical race theory, and a variety of other uses of authoritarian big government to impose his philosophical views on others is more in line with the right wing authoritarianism of someone like Hungary's ViKtor Orban then it is similar to the limited government conservatism of Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater. In making this case, Scarborough made it very clear that Ron DeSantis is not a conservative. We must keep in mind that DeSantis is essentially positioning himself as Trump 2.0, advocating a more competent version of hard right Trumpist policy as an alternative to Donald Trump himself in the 2024 Republican primaries.

We should be clear that those who advocate a more progressive socially libertarian point of view on social issues and a more economically populist policy in desiring a more activist government that fosters stronger regulation for consumer protection and public safety while seeking out the goal of building an economy that works for all and not just the wealthy and powerful will not find this brand of conservatism much more attractive than the Trumpist brand of conservatism. But it is important for all of us to distinguish the very real differences between limited government conservatism and very hard right authoritarian policies as practiced by the DeSantis and Trump.

Mike Pence is a 1990s limited government conservative as in many ways Nikki Haley also is, who was elected governor in 2010 during the Tea Party wave which began the more rightward direction of the Republican Party. If either one of them very strongly makes the case, during the 2024 primaries about how this more Reagan Goldwater style of limited government conservatism is the alternative to the Trump-DeSantis-Orban brand of authoritarian right wing Republicanism, this will provide for a very spirited debate during the 2024 Republican primaries. It will also give Republican voters a clear choice about the future of their party, they will have to decide whether they embrace the authoritarian big government approach of someone like Ron DeSantis or will they go back to the more recent tradition of the Republican Party to embrace limited government pro big business conservatism that is more libertarian on social issues then the DeSantis-Trump-Orban style of authoritarian right wing big government. Quite famously, Bill Clinton had once declared in his State of the Union Address that the era of big government is over. Apparently these right wing authoritarian Republicans didn't hear that message

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But for a party that claims to be in favor of freedom, if the more limited government brand of Republicans forcefully debate their point of view in 2024, they will expose the DeSantis and Trump brand of Republicanism as more authoritarian and certainly not in line with the GOP's branding as the party of freedom. If Republicans have that debate in their primaries next year, it will expose to all Americans to see just how far right and extreme Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, and others like them, have pushed the Republican Party in the direction of ideological fascism. If Republicans hear this debate and still decide they want the GOP to be a right-wing big government authoritarian party, then they will be soundly crushed in the 2024 general election, whether they nominate Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump to carry the banner for authoritarian far right Republicanism.