Towards a Republican Counter-Elite

Amidst the dark cloud of the GOP’s 2020 election defeat, many post-mortems pointed to a silver lining, the substantial growth of GOP support among working-class minorities and immigrants. In something of a tell, this growth was often heralded in outlets normally quite hostile to the GOP and its interests. “The GOP is really assembling the multiracial working-class coalition that the left has always dreamed of,” said David Shor, a Democratic operative who was a leading Obama advisor.

While the GOP should of course welcome an expanded electoral base, the narrative of a multicultural, working-class-led GOP is a briar patch that the often-dimwitted GOP leadership should avoid. That narrative presents two dangers to the party: First, that in its laudable efforts to reach out to minorities, the GOP will abandon or attack the legitimate interests of its existing, predominantly white, voter base; and, second, that in focusing its efforts on building a working-class coalition, it will alienate the elites that it ultimately needs to win over to govern successfully.

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