Mark Hemingway

You know, again, this article was published in the 70th anniversary issue of National Review.

And, you know, it just starts by, you know, reviewing Phyllis Schlafly's Choice Not an Echo.

It doesn't really explain why it's doing this.

And then three quarters of the way through the piece, there's a line in there about, is it all surprising that Schlafly's last significant political act just before her death in 2016 was to give her blessing to Donald Trump?

And all of a sudden, everything becomes clear.

It's like they start with this premise, which is just assumed that Donald Trump is bad, which, by the way, even to this day, I don't think 90% of the absolute subscriber base agrees with.

And then they reason backwards from there.

Donald Trump was swept into power by populism.

One of Schlafly's biggest legacies was moving the GOP in a more populous direction in 1964 with a book of choice, not an echo, that convinced voters and grassroots to support Barry Goldwater for president.

And Errico, the woman that introduced populism in 1964, is responsible for the bad orange man in 2024.

And it's a really silly argument.

I mean, a lot of things happened in the 60 years between then and now.

And populism influenced a lot of things in the meantime, very much for the better.

It moved the party in a much more socially conservative direction, say, if you're pro-life, which is a

huge component of Republican base.

Populism is what elected Reagan.

Remember, he was the outsider in 1976 when he didn't get the nomination.

He was still the outsider in 1980 when he did capture it.

And the Reagan revolution was largely a populist thing.

So even if you don't like Trump, to say that populism has been bad for the GOP is frankly insane.