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Author speaks on current state of Republican Party, day of Utah caucuses

Matt Lewis, an author and political commentator spoke about the current state of the Republican party on Tuesday at Huntsman Hall.

The speech was a Douglas S. Foxley Forum, which is a series put on by the Institute of Government and Politics (IOGP) at USU.

Lewis whose book “Too Dumb to Fail” came out at the beginning of the year is a conservative commentator whose talk titled “The Republican Presidential Primary: How can the Republican party return to its intellectual roots?” was about how the Republican party has strayed from its traditional “Reagan” roots, and how it can return.

“It’s also just an amazing to be here, on caucus day and to be covering politics,” Lewis said. “This year is especially exciting, although it’s also very disturbing too, right? I really think right now is a time for choosing, and if you look at what’s on the right, right now, I think there’s a real schism and a real debate or fight over what it means to be a conservative or what it means to be a Republican.”

Lewis defined the type of conservatism he believes in being a solutions-oriented and optimistic belief that people can be lifted up, that it can bring about prosperity and growth. However, he believes the current view of conservatism is more populist and about scarcity, something that has been made more prominent with Donald Trump’s involvement in the Republican Party.

Lewis’ book is about trends he started to see in the Republican Party, “where you have candidates, pundits, commentators who all have perverse incentives,” he said. There are those on the right side who are saying controversial things to create more buzz and sell books and ideas, but “collectively hurt the conservative movement in the Republican party. So that’s the movement, that the ‘too dumb to fail’ problem.”

Lewis discussed how many prominent Republicans leaders and presidents have put on a show in the past, to make the party seem a certain way — like the “good old boy” party, or not quite as intelligent as it may be. This included Ronald Reagan not letting out the lists of books he read annually, so people didn’t know how much he read, and George W. Bush playing into the country boy persona to appeal to more and different people.

However, this had led to the Republican party seeming to be more and more full of incompetence.

“That’s the depressing part. Now the good news. Despite all the serious problems laid out in this book, Democrats are also being asked to do something that is very hard to do, and that is to win a third consecutive presidential election. It’s also important to recognize that even though the trends all look disastrous, things could change real fast,” Lewis said. “Notions that the conservative movement is dead could also prove to be absurd.”

Lewis left the audience with an understanding that the Republican party is not doomed for what may have happened in the past, the present or the future, as long as the ideals conservatism is rooted in are not forgotten.

“A political party is never more than one generation from extinction or rebirth. It’s our responsibility to seize the mantel, to make the hard choices. Conservatives must make the hard choices. Conservatives must be proactive to ensure these demographic trends do not become destiny,” he said. “The last thing we should do is betray conservatism’s first principles or its base of supporters. On the other hand, conservatism must evolve if it is to survive and flourish in the 21st century.”

Nadir Tekarli, a junior majoring in marketing and economics, attended the speech with the hope of gaining a better understanding of how the Republican party got to where it currently is.

“I always like the events that IOGP puts on. They’re always interesting and have good political speakers, and I think this one is the most interesting because today is the caucus,” Tekarli said. “It’s been crazy with political primaries, and he’s going to be talking about just that.”

Students came from different backgrounds and ranges of study, but Tekarli summed up what the entire audience could learn and take away from it.

“I hope we gain a deeper understanding of why the primaries are going the way they are, why certain candidates are leading, why some are not,” Tekarli said. “It’s kind of a professional insight on it, a more deep insight, from a renowned author.”

For more information about Matt Lewis and his political blogging and commentary, visit: www.mattlewis.org. For more information about Foxley Forums or the IOGP, visit: usu.edu/iogp/events/foxley-forums.

— mandy.m.morgan@aggiemail.usu.edu
@mandy_morg