Instead, the GOP has now shifted away from the hardcore fiscal conservatism that motivated the Goldwater Republicans, and instead embraced some big swatches of leftist fiscal policy - untouchable entitlements in Medicare and Social Security and protectionist trade policy.

It's more a nod to reality.
The time to reform Social Security was during the Clinton/Bush43 years while the Baby Boomer Generation was young enough to benefit from a privatization option. Now they've all retired and the program was never reformed, so here we are. Besides that the last democrat who would acknowledge that there was a funding problem with SS was...Bill Clinton.

You're oversimplifying some other things. The average Joe has seen the 'traditional' GOP bulwalk of the Chamber of Commerce outsource all their jobs overseas, donate to democrats and embrace woke DEI bullspit (see Disney and Gilette as shining examples). Why support people who constant crap on your values?

So they're not. All Trump is doing is putting a campaign around it.

You can't have a "trade policy" that doesn't punish cheating by your trade partners. That also doesn't fly. democrats are pouncing on this reality to try and cry "protectionism" but then turn around and cheer that they got the CHIPS act through. That kind of argumentative duplicity is unfortunately how they roll.

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