If Conservatives Won’t Defend Capitalism, Who Will?

In the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani’s election victory earlier this month, it became clear that socialism is more of a rising threat on the left than ever before. It’s also clear the GOP could no longer coast along by proclaiming “Vote for us because he’s a socialist,” assuming that people would forever have a knee-jerk reaction to that word.

One issue that defined New York’s mayoral race – and, increasingly, politics throughout the country – is affordability. For millions of Americans, being able to afford rent, grocery bills, health care, and buying a home seems further out of reach than ever before. The issue has been winked at by politicians across the spectrum for years around election time with precious little results to show for it.

We have largely reached a point where this can no longer be avoided: We are now seeing regular releases of ever-worsening economic figures. The median age for all U.S. home buyers is 59 – a staggering statistic by itself, made even worse by the fact that it’s up from just 28 back in 1991.

And it’s not just that people are getting priced out of home ownership – rents have gone up astronomically over the past decade, leading us to a situation in which the American consumer is clearly struggling to get by. From credit card debt at record highs with seriously delinquent accounts hitting 12%, the highest since 2012, to auto repos matching 2009 levels, it’s pretty clear that the consumer is maxed out.

Looking around at how conservative pundits spent the last week talking, though, you wouldn’t know it at all. You’d be forgiven if you thought they had just come off of a huge electoral victory. Conservatism simply cannot reduce itself to being the worst caricature of cold elitism that turns a blind eye to the very real economic struggles many in the country are facing.

Ben Shapiro kicked things off after suggesting to young people that they simply should not live in places like New York City, criticizing the idea that someone would deserve to live where they grew up and where job opportunities are heavily concentrated.

That same week, Donald Trump opened a rift within his own base – a rare sight for sure – in an interview with Laura Ingraham over the issue of H-1B visas. When she pushed him on his stance, saying that we have “plenty of talented people here,” he interrupted with “No you don’t, no you don’t.” Instead of focusing on how to make American workers more competitive through better education or training, the message heard by many was that Americans weren’t up for the job.

Worst of all was Dinesh D’Souza, who felt the need to weigh in on Vivek Ramaswamy’s meritocratic education reform by essentially race-baiting, saying “How ironic it will be if a brown American like Vivek actually helps to fix education and raise the prospects of white kids, while all the professional whiteys on X continue their idle boasting.” Whatever the merits of education reform, mocking struggling Americans – especially through whatever “professional whiteys” is supposed to mean – isn’t doing anyone any favors.

With approaches like these from the right, who needs the left anymore? It took the Democrat candidate and Ramaswamy’s opponent in the Ohio gubernatorial race, Amy Acton, all of 24 hours to put together an ad saying that Ramaswamy thinks “Ohioans are lazy and mediocre. He’s wrong.” It practically wrote itself.

Arguments like these from conservatives do more damage to the defense of capitalism than attacks from socialists ever could, and are totally disconnected from what free markets actually are. Capitalism has delivered more prosperity than any system in human history, and it’s not even close – but it didn’t get there by running in democracies on the platform of saying “You’re too poor to live where you grew up, our country isn’t talented, move aside.”

New York City is famous throughout the world because it’s the city where generation after generation of people who wanted to work hard could go and make something of themselves. Nobody I’ve seen on the right is asking for a luxury life handed to them on a silver spoon while they sit on the couch. They’re frustrated by the fact that the world seems to be increasingly out of reach for them.

The only person in the GOP who seems to be able to see this, I’m horrified to say, appears to be Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spent the last few weeks getting attacked for acknowledging that many “young adults are barely making it,” and accusing Trump’s allies of gaslighting Americans about the cost of living. On Saturday, she posted on X: “My heart is with Americans who struggle to afford life in America today.”

To her credit, she’s been consistent in prioritizing cost-of-living issues – something that’s become far too rare in the GOP since Donald Trump took office. She’s taken the lead in warning that health insurance premiums would double for millions of Americans – including her own adult children – when enhanced ACA subsidies expire, while Republican leadership has largely sidestepped the problem.

We on the right have long embraced a more tough-love approach that certainly includes prioritizing a strong work ethic, and nobody needs to give that up. But that’s not the issue here at all – Ben Shapiro’s comments are not directed at people who don’t want to work, they’re directed and felt by those who do work and still can’t afford many basic things that previous generations took for granted.

Explaining to voters why they’re wrong – or even worse, outright dismissing their concerns – has never worked politically, and that’s not going to change now. Support for capitalism has now fallen to 54% overall, with Democrats preferring socialism 66% to 42%.

Peter Thiel’s now-viral email from 2020 captures exactly what’s underlying this shift: “From the perspective of a broken generational compact … when one has too much student debt or if housing is too unaffordable, then one will have negative capital for a long time … if one has no stake in the capitalist system, then one may well turn against it.”

He was right then, and he’s right now. The only thing left to be seen is whether the right will wake up to that reality before it’s too late.

If last week’s performance is any indication, I’m not holding my breath.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.