GOP nat-cons versus globalists: The populist insurgents have won

THE nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate and his pick of Senator JD Vance of Ohio marks a turning point in the transformation of the Grand Old Party (GOP) from the political home of Corporate America and Washington’s internationalist elites into the party that represents the interests of members of America’s working class and embraces a more populist, protectionist and isolationist set of policies.

Indeed, the emerging Grand Trump Party represents the turning away of the Republican Party from its commitment to free market principles, free trade, foreign policy multilateralism and open immigration, and the embrace of more statist economic policies and a unilateralist and inward-looking approach to world affairs.

It’s safe to say that the populist and nationalist Republicans have beaten the traditional pro-business and internationalist so-called Reaganite Republicans – the so-termed “globalist elites” who back low taxes, free trade, open immigration, and US diplomatic and military engagement in the world, and who were represented by the likes of former Republican presidential candidate, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah.