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Conservatism in the Era of Trump

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2019

Michael Barber Open the ORCID record for Michael Barber [Opens in a new window]  and
Jeremy C. Pope Open the ORCID record for Jeremy C. Pope [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

What does the rise and election of Donald J. Trump as president mean for the future of conservatism? Republican elites continue to argue about whether Trump is changing the definition of conservatism for better or worse, although many Republicans seem content to let him shape the issues, direction, and brand of the traditional party of conservatism. We examine the ideological characteristics of different groups of Republican voters across three types of ideology: symbolic, operational, and conceptual. We find distinct differences between Republicans who consistently supported Trump and other groups that either supported him in the general election only and those who never supported him. The Never Trump camp stands out as a group that is less symbolically and operationally conservative but also better able to articulate what it means to be a conservative than do Trump’s core supporters, who look very much the opposite. These results suggest a contemporary Republican Party that is far from unified in what it means to be a conservative.

Type
Special Section: Consequences
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 719 - 736
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2019 

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Footnotes

A list of permanent links to Supplemental Materials provided by the authors precedes the References section.

*

Data replication sets are available in Harvard Dataverse at: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QJ4MK0

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