Conservatives should embrace principled populism -- and govern with Trump

Imagining principled-populist immigration reforms that would help lower-income Americans isn’t too hard. Border security — including a wall, fence, or some other barrier — is an obvious first step. Finally creating a strict entry-exit system and a workplace-enforcement regime would discourage illegal entry and penalize visa overstayers. In short order, fewer foreigners would illegally enter the United States, and more who already have done so would leave — all without the violation of anyone’s rights.

Then there is the matter of trade policies. Trump says America is losing in the global economy and blames international trade agreements for failing to deliver, especially to the working class, on their promised benefits. This contradicts conservatives’ traditional support for free trade. But Trump does have a point. Whatever its aggregate benefits to the economy, free trade has imposed costs on millions of Americans. On the other hand, Trump’s promise to “bring back the jobs” now done in factories abroad is dubious. Automation has so changed American manufacturing that most of the jobs we’ve lost to outsourcing may not even exist anymore. Indeed, total American industrial output continues to grow, even as industrial employment stagnates.

Republicans should be able to recognize that while globalization and free trade have created enormous opportunity and wealth for the country, those benefits have flowed disproportionately to the wealthy. So principled populism would, rather than withdraw from the global economy, seek to channel its benefits to workers — to harness the irresistible forces of globalization to the interests of Trump’s “forgotten Americans.” Dramatically cutting — even eliminating — the corporate-income tax while raising investment-tax rates to recoup the lost revenue would help accomplish this goal. First, it would boost wages, since employers currently pass on some of the tax burden to their employees. And second, it would flood our economy with new foreign investment and help create American jobs.

But a successful populism cannot just give Americans more money; it should also give them more political power. Lots of it. Happily, the Founding Fathers long ago mastered the art of this particular deal. The United States Constitution is not purely democratic, but it is profoundly populist. Indeed, it’s the most successful populist platform ever written, as last Election Day proved once again.