Politics

Nov 17, 2025 Michael R. Strain

Under the influence of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement, the American right has become unrecognizable to those who remain committed to the values espoused by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The question now is whether the Republican Party can still recover their brand of dignified conservatism.

WASHINGTON, DC – When I speak to college students about the problems with democratic socialism and populism, I often quote then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s warning: With these economic policies, “you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Since this often produces quizzical looks, I then follow up with a quote from Thatcher’s 1983 address to the Conservative Party conference: “There is no such thing as public money, there is only taxpayers’ money.”