Donald Trump has ushered in a very different sort of conservatism and Republican Party from the one embraced and led by Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. And data and electoral results suggest that this populist conservatism has appealed to different constituencies and contributed to the Democratic and Republican coalitions shifting. But what exactly is this new type of conservatism? What ideas and policies do Trump’s brand of conservatives advocate and who do they appeal to? How is it different from what came before it? This panel discussion will take a deep dive into all things populist conservatism from its appeal to its agenda to its future and more. Audience Q&A included.
Speakers
Abigail Ball is executive director of American Compass, a Washington-based think tank working to restore an economic consensus that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation’s liberty and prosperity. American Compass has been an influential voice on the right-of-center since its founding in 2020, advocating for a renewed focus on the importance of the domestic industrial base, manufacturing productivity, and the good jobs lost to decades of globalization. She has helped lead American Compass since its founding in 2020, before which she worked in communications at prominent think tanks in New York, including the Manhattan Institute.
Judge Glock is the director of research and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal. He was formerly the senior director of policy and research at the Cicero Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Austin, and a visiting professor of economics at West Virginia University. He writes about the intersection of economics, finance, and housing, with a perspective informed by his work in economic history. Glock’s work has been featured in National Affairs, Tax Notes, the Journal of American History, NPR, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among other places. He is the author of the book The Dead Pledge: The Origins of the Mortgage Market and Federal Bailouts, 1913-1939, published in 2021 by Columbia University Press. He received his Ph.D. in history with a focus on economic history from Rutgers University.
Patrick Ruffini is a founding partner at Echelon Insights, one of the most widely recognized public opinion and strategic research firms in the United States. He is the author of Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP, called “the book that predicted the 2024 election” by The New York Times and ranked as a Best Book in Politics by the Wall Street Journal. An expert in political realignment and demographic trends, he has offered on-air analysis, including on election nights, for CNBC, Fox News, the BBC, and NPR and written for The New York Times, theWall Street Journal, Time, The Atlantic, and Politico, among others. Before starting Echelon Insights, Patrick led one of the country’s premier digital strategy and communications firms, Engage, and served in senior roles at the Republican National Committee and for President George W. Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Moderator
Brian Rosenwald is a scholar in residence at the Partnership for Effective Public Administration and Leadership Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and an instructor at Penn. He serves as the Editor-In-chief of Made By History, a Washington Post history section and is the author of Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States (2019). He works at the intersection of 4 disciplines – history, political science, media studies, and communications. His scholarly interests include Congress, the media, public policy, and the Supreme Court. He also has significant interest in the substance of public policy and in helping scholars to reach a wider audience with their work.
This event is co-sponsored by the Red and Blue Exchange and the SNF Paideia Program.
