MAGA + MAHA + MATA: Reagan’s Three-Legged Stool Now Has Six

Trump’s coalition of disgruntled Democrats must become conservative, not just Republican.

The first person I ever heard describe the three-legged stool of conservatism was Newt Gingrich. Sure, Ronald Reagan may have built the analogy, but, as someone born in 1985, Reagan was long gone from the national scene when I came of age politically. By 2005, Gingrich was the leading purveyor of the idea that the modern Republican Party was composed of social conservatives, defense hawks, and fiscal conservatives. At that time, the Republican Party still didn’t have local majorities in places like Mississippi, and, though there were always some disgruntled Democrats — I’m thinking especially of Democrat Senator Zell Miller from Georgia — there was not a tectonic shift ideologically. Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive our spring 2025 print magazine, which includes this article and others like it. All that changed with Donald Trump. A quick glimpse at Trump’s Cabinet picks, especially former Democrats Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., points to a coalition shift that might mean reevaluating the three-legged stool. Who is included in the new Trump coalition? For starters, the populists. When I was working in New York City in 2015, I first got the feeling that Trump might actually pull off a victory when one day all the union staff showed up mad. They weren’t just pissed. They were the kind of livid that can only be achieved by guys who work in blue-collar jobs and haven’t had twenty years of white-collar bosses telling them emotional outbursts are unbecoming. It was visceral and authentic and driven by the way the Democrats snubbed their hero, Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator’s lifelong attempt to be the voice of working men against the elites was being upended in the name of handing the nomination to Hillary Clinton. The talk of the morning was that if they couldn’t vote for Bernie, they were going to vote for Trump. Sure enough, they did. Subscribe to The American Spectator to receive our latest print edition. As Salena Zito expertl...