Top Five Things That Conservatives Have Flipped On to Support Donald Trump

1. Throwing shade on Keynesian economics

Remember when conservatives loved Milton Friedman? Those were the days. I have a conservative friend who used to send emails with interesting essays on the beauty of Austrian economics. They were often compelling and highly critical of Barack Obama’s economic policies.  It’s always nice to have a little comparative advantage with your morning coffee, or to settle down in the evening to test the marginal utility of scotch, and I looked forward to those emails. But I haven’t seen them in a while.

Trump has expressed no allegiance to any school of economics, but his protectionist policies are most certainly anti-Austrian. His wall on the Mexican border is designed to prevent the free movement of labor. His proposed punitive measures against out-sourcing are surely aimed at the free movement of capital. He supports an increase in the minimum wage and has demonstrated a penchant for cronyism to keep jobs in the US.

All of these policies would have deeply offended a conservative a mere eighteen months ago. But that was when we had a different president.