What a More Responsible Republican Party Would Look Like
If you watched this past weekend\u2019s Conservative Political Action Conference, you heard a lot of debunked election conspiracies, dire warnings about \u201ccancel culture\u201d and unwavering fealty to Donald Trump. What you didn\u2019t hear was much in the way of policy ideas to raise wages, improve health care or support families. This is the modern G.O.P.: a post-policy party obsessed with symbolic fights and curiously uninterested in the actual work of governing. But does it have to be that way?\n\nRamesh Ponnuru is a senior editor at National Review, a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a Republican wonk who is pushing his party in a more responsible, policy-centric direction. We discuss:\n\n\u2014 Why Republicans have lost interest in policy.\n\n\u2014 Whether Trump would have won the presidency if Senate Republicans had passed a big stimulus bill before the 2020 election.\n\n\u2014 Why Ponnuru thinks the Republican Party\u2019s 2024 hopefuls have learned the wrong lesson from Trump\u2019s 2016 victory.\n\n\u2014 The conservative case for a universal child allowance.\n\n\u2014 Why so few Republican politicians have openly endorsed the Romney child allowance plan \u2014 and what that says about the tensions within the party\u2019s coalition.\n\n\u2014 What it would take for Republicans to move away from being a \u201cbusiness owners\u2019\u201d party and toward being a \u201cparents\u2019\u201d party.\n\n\u2014 Why Ponnuru thinks Republicans should support limiting, or outright banning, just-in-time scheduling practices.\n\n\u2014 Whether there was ever a mass constituency for Paul Ryan\u2019s version of conservatism.\n\n\u2014 Who are the most important emerging voices on the political right today.\n\nAnd much more.\n\nRecommendations: \n\n"The Great Debate" by Yuval Levin\n\n"The Upside-Down Constitution" by Michael S. Greve\n\n"Popular Crime" by Bill James\n\n"The Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Rog\xe9 Karma and Jeff Geld; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld.