Senator John Kennedy v. the GOP’s ‘Goobers’

The news that Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana is weighing a White House bid is an early signal that the 2028 contest will not only determine a nominee, but the direction of the post-Trump GOP. And while a run by Mr. Kennedy is far from assured, the prospect of a conservative candidate of his caliber on the hustings is welcome. For one thing, the Pelican State solon grasps that “the biggest issue” facing Americans, as he puts it, is “the cost of living.”Mr. Kennedy says “I haven’t made a decision” on whether to toss his hat into the ring. He tells NBC News’ Kristen Welker that “on my side of the aisle, if a bunch of goobers run, and I think they’re goobers, and one of the goobers might win, and I think I could do a better job, I would consider running.” That’s as astute an appraisal of the impending horse race as we’ve yet seen. Mr. Kennedy adds: “What’s the old Judds song? Why not me on a rainy day?”The question resonates, especially in light of Mr. Kennedy’s habit of putting the hay down where us mules can get to it on issues like, say, voter frustration over inflation. In contrast with the White House incumbent, who describes the crisis of affordability as a “hoax,” Mr. Kennedy insists that “we have to tell the American people the truth. We keep telling them not to believe their own lying checkbooks. It’s not going to work.”When it comes to the inflation surge of the past several years — instigated, to be sure, by federal overspending and excessive stimulus spending under President Biden and the Democrats — Mr. Kennedy pulls no punches. “The American people, both sides, feel anger,” he asserts. “If they don’t feel anger, they feel deep melancholy. They feel like the Washington political leaders have let them down.”Mr. Kennedy has a clear-eyed grasp of the problem’s origins. “President Biden’s administration was an inflation machine,” he lamented in the run-up to the 2024 election, and Americans needed relief. The solution, he said, is “to grow out of the inflation,” meaning “to lift people up, to increase wages at the low end of the wage scale, at the middle, and at the upper end of the wage scale.” That echoes JFK’s awareness that “a rising tide lifts all boats.”In contrast with an economic establishment that espouses steady inflation as a way to boost growth, but ends up creating what we’ve called the “illusion of wealth,” Mr. Kennedy stresses growth. As he puts it, “5,000 years of human history has taught us that you cannot increase wealth” without “increasing output.” Hence the need, he said, to “figure out how to grow this economy,” and “not at 1.5 percent, not at 2 percent, which has become the norm.”The emphasis on growth, and disinclination to back statist interventions like capping credit card interest rates, puts Mr. Kennedy at a variance with the right’s new economic populists, of whom Vice President Vance is a standard-bearer. One could credit Mr. Kennedy’s conversion from the Democrats for this stance. “I believe that the primary role of the government is to protect people and not run their lives,” he has said of his switch to the GOP.“You used to be able to believe that in the Democratic Party,” he said, but “you can’t anymore.” In making that party switch, Mr. Kennedy calls to mind Ronald Reagan’s quip that “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The party left me.” As Republicans approach a 2028 race that will help define the GOP’s identity after President Trump’s two administrations, could it take another former Democrat to keep the Party of Lincoln on the right track?

Senator John Kennedy v. the GOP’s ‘Goobers’

Senator John Kennedy v. the GOP’s ‘Goobers’

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