Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren | Email Lisa | Email Megan Social conservatives have not found much of a home in DONALD TRUMP’s Cabinet — at least not in the vein of Focus on the Family founder JAMES DOBSON, televangelist JERRY FALWELL and the rest of the Moral Majority. Instead, Trump has nearly rounded out his Cabinet with several picks who espouse a new kind of social conservatism, like Defense secretary pick PETE HEGSETH and TULSI GABBARD, who has received the nod for national intelligence director. The narrow, decades-old focus on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and religious freedom is out, and a broader — some would say more “holistic” — set of “pro-family” policies is in.
This new brand of social conservatism fears parental rights are being undermined by the government. It opposes the teaching of diversity, equity and inclusion, and other ideas it would describe as “woke,” in public schools. It’s worried about the push for transgender rights, even as it mostly acknowledges that the ship has sailed on same-sex marriage. And it wants to use tax policy to incentivize people to get married and have children as policies like a national abortion ban take a back seat.
It is, in part, the result of a broadening Republican coalition — and it’s sparking a debate among traditional social conservatives about where, exactly, they fit in. Some social conservative idealists feel sidelined — particularly frustrated by Trump’s laissez-faire approach to abortion policy — while others who see themselves as realists are hopeful they will continue to have influence in this latest iteration of the Republican Party. “I've got friends of mine who are in the thought lane exclusively who tend to be more hysterical and see this as, ‘Well, we've lost all power, we’re the kick-me dunces who are just going to get walked on from here through eternity,’” one social conservative thought leader, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, told West Wing Playbook.
Other social conservatives are not just accepting the shift — but embracing it. “They’re all fighters. They’re all people that understand the threats posed from the Democrats’ culture war. … These are non-conventional picks but the problem is this culture war is non-conventional,” said TERRY SCHILLING, president of the American Principles Project. “We’re not debating gay marriage. We’re talking about giving kids sex changes or allowing boys to compete against girls in sports.” The Trump transition team didn’t weigh in on this shift in social conservatism, instead saying in a statement that the president-elect’s Cabinet picks “reflect his priority to put America First."
Even as the GOP grapples with what to do with the Christian nationalist strain of conservatism running through the party, this new kind of social conservatism is inherently more secular — rooted more in the philosophy of natural law and what some describe as “common sense” ideas about gender and family — than the social conservatism of old, reflective of a bigger tent party that is itself more outwardly secular than it has been in decades past. The party’s views on gender, another social conservative argued, is more reflective of a “rampant heterosexuality” than it is of a one-man, one-woman, no-sex-before-marriage kind of Christian orthodoxy.
The concerns driving this latest conversation around social conservatism cross party lines: fears about the role of technology on kids, declining U.S. birth rates, definition of gender roles, and the loneliness epidemic among them (even as Democrats by and large strongly support transgender rights). It explains why this vision has attracted the support of people like ELON MUSK, who previously supported Democrats. It speaks to the kind of post-liberal Catholicism that people like Vice President-elect JD VANCE have embraced. ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, has been all over the map on abortion. But the reaction to him — former Vice President MIKE PENCE aside — has been relatively muted from the party’s socially conservative wing — and even, to the confusion of some, positive. Heritage Foundation President KEVIN ROBERTS called Kennedy’s selection “an enormous victory for the bipartisan, grassroots movement to make America healthy again.” Traditional social conservatives are, for the most part, embracing this new vision for the party. And they haven’t been entirely shut out. Trump’s secretary of State nominee Sen. MARCO RUBIO and national security advisor pick Rep. MIKE WALTZ, both of Florida, have strong old school social conservative credentials. And they’re holding out hope for others, like RUSS VOUGHT, who is expected to be appointed by Trump to again lead the Office of Management and Budget. Still, some fear this new vision is coming at the expense of the old one, particularly on abortion. The Trump transition team’s rejection of ROGER SEVERINO, an anti-abortion stalwart, as deputy Health and Human Services secretary this week did nothing to allay those fears.
“They took the old school bucket and they swapped it out with the new school bucket. The question for social conservatives who want both buckets is what does that mean long term?” said a longtime conservative activist who has held leadership roles in prominent conservative organizations, granted anonymity to speak candidly. Cutting out anti-abortion policies “is a massive massive problem, because it all begins there. If you can’t defend the tiniest human beings, and fight for their dignity and right to life, then I’m not sure you have a ton of credibility on the other stuff.”
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