{"id":14964,"date":"2023-12-12T07:53:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T12:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americancompass.org\/?p=14964"},"modified":"2024-04-19T07:30:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T11:30:11","slug":"2023-annual-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americancompass.org\/2023-annual-report\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 Annual Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Founder\u2019s Letter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Oren Cass<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

The term \u201cpopulism\u201d is most often used disparagingly, to condemn political efforts perceived as pandering to the worst instincts of the masses. Its opposite, in this telling, is Edmund Burke\u2019s famous adage, \u201cYour representative owes you, not his industry only, but judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.\u201d The populist does what the people want; the statesman does what is good for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this definition begs the question. What makes politics hard, and essential, is the need to mediate between competing definitions of the common good and amongst the varying aspirations and priorities of a pluralistic society. What is<\/em> good for the people? And if the people\u2019s definition of the good differs from the statesman\u2019s, whose should prevail? Elected leaders and technocrats may have special insight into how the people\u2019s goals are best accomplished, but can they know better than the people what those goals should be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American right-of-center has gotten these answers wrong in recent decades, in ways that have drifted far afield of genuine conservatism. Respect for the values and preferences of the people is vital to democratic legitimacy and good policymaking; only with that direction discerned can policymakers serve the people by bringing their own judgment to bear. The people must define the ends; the technocrats can best determine the means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fatal conceit of the market fundamentalism that infected conservatism is that economics makes discussion of ends obsolete. According to the in-fashion doctrine, the goal of economics is to maximize consumer welfare, accomplished by providing a free market in which individuals can optimize their own outcomes. In this formulation, politics plays no role. The statesman\u2019s task is to deliver the free market and if the people say they want something else they are wrong; to listen is \u201cpopulist,\u201d and a dereliction of duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading the Founder\u2019s Letter…<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Support American Compass<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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You can donate to American Compass via check, wire, stock transfer, or online at americancompass.org\/donate<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about our Navigators Guild, please visit americancompass.org\/guild<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Turning the Tide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

American Compass has transformed the economic framework and public policy debate within American conservatism. From congressional offices to boardrooms to think tanks, conferences, and journals, the market fundamentalism that characterized right-of-center economics over the past 40 years has been quickly eroded by new arguments about the prerequisites for a well-functioning capitalist system and the vital role for policymakers. Old assumptions and dogmas once thoughtlessly tossed around are no longer taken for granted; and in many cases, no longer taken seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January, the Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u2019s Gerald Seib described<\/a> the \u201ccoterie of younger Republicans, in Congress and think tanks, who advocate policies that would mark a sharp break from the conservative, free-market gospel that has been the backbone of the GOP for more than half a century.\u201d American Compass, he wrote, \u201cis in the forefront of rethinking traditional conservative economic ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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In June, highlighting our Rebuilding American<\/em> Capitalism<\/em><\/a> handbook, the New York Times<\/em> likewise reported<\/a>, \u201cThe consensus in Washington is moving away from the neoliberal, laissez-faire <\/em>approach that has dominated since the 1980s.\u201d According to National Public Radio<\/a>, \u201cSome prominent Republicans are changing their tune when it comes to the economy. They\u2019re still social conservatives, but they\u2019re veering away from the party\u2019s traditional laissez-faire <\/em>take on business and embracing ideas from a new conservative group called American Compass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those conservative leaders, Senator Marco Rubio, has described our influence as \u201cextraordinary\u201d and observed, \u201cCompass is doing as much or more to shape the national conversation and our economic policy than Washington\u2019s largest think tanks. I look to American Compass for advice and ideas, and the number of my colleagues who do also is staggering.\u201d As Senator Todd Young put it, our \u201cwork on conservative economics is changing how policymaking happens in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With good reason, publications from the New York Times <\/em>to The Economist<\/em> to The American Conservative <\/em>all use the same word to describe us: \u201cinfluential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to our success is not a big team, a large budget, or a prestigious address. To the contrary, we have accomplished all this with a team of six and a budget of less than $2 million, working out of a converted yoga studio. The key is that we have the right ideas, delivered in the right ways at the right times. We work from genuine conservative principles to address the real problems facing the nation and its citizens. We are proving that ideas matter, and the best ones can turn the political tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf the New Right groups, American Compass probably has the most pull inside the Beltway. It is not hard to see why. Cass offers a ready-made diagnosis of troubled communities, as well as a helpful menu of policy options, for ambitious Republicans eager to placate and someday inherit Donald Trump\u2019s non-college-educated constituency.\u201d<\/p>Matthew Continetti, Commentary<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rebuilding Capitalism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In June, we released Rebuilding American<\/em> Capitalism: A Handbook for Conservative<\/em> Policymakers<\/em><\/a>, the culmination of our first three years of work. The handbook\u2019s 100 pages begin by establishing the foundation for conservative economics, and then build atop a robust platform for addressing America\u2019s economic problems. Commentary from a wide range of conservative policymakers and scholars elaborate on both the challenges facing policymakers and the opportunities for progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebuilding American Capitalism<\/em> is a flashing beacon showing a way out from market fundamentalism\u2019s dead end. For the first time, conservatives have a serious, comprehensive alternative to the stale 1980s orthodoxy that has paralyzed policymakers. And everyone has noticed. The project received feature coverage everywhere from the New York Times<\/em>, Politico, NPR, and The Economist<\/em> to The Dispatch, The<\/em> American Conservative<\/em>, and The National Interest<\/em>. The Old Right\u2019s panic at seeing the tide turn against it was apparent in the twelve different critiques published by National Review<\/em>, the Washington Examiner<\/em>, and the Cato Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n

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To punctuate the handbook\u2019s release, we filled the storied Kennedy Caucus Room on Capitol Hill with 200 congressional staffers, think tankers, and journalists for a discussion with prominent conservative leaders. Senators Tom Cotton, Todd Young, Marco Rubio, and J.D. Vance all brought their distinct perspectives to the full range of topics addressed in the handbook, including globalization and immigration, financialization, industrial policy, education, labor, and the family. They shared how their own thinking has evolved beyond the Old Right\u2019s market fundamentalism and described some of the important legislative initiatives they are pursuing, often inspired by American Compass\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As NPR\u2019s Marketplace reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A group of prominent Republican leaders is coalescing around a new economic strategy that\u2019s a far cry from the free market capitalism of the past. \u2026 A new manifesto from American Compass, a conservative think tank charts a different path on the economy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Politico highlighted<\/a> the project as \u201cdriving the day\u201d in Washington:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What sets American Compass apart from other right-leaning think tanks\u2014and makes its agenda well-timed for this moment of rising Republican populism\u2014is that it eschews the libertarian view that unfettered markets are what\u2019s needed to fix the American economy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When American Compass launched three years ago, conservative economics had little political purchase and no institutional support. Now it is widely recognized as the most intellectually robust and politically salient framework for conservative policymakers, with a range of legislative initiatives underway, numerous elected officials involved, and hundreds of younger aides, researchers, journalists, lawyers, and activists building the infrastructure to govern in the long run. This is the course that American Compass has charted and will continue to chart until we have restored an economic consensus that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation\u2019s liberty and prosperity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsive Politics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A vital feature of American Compass\u2019s work, setting us apart from many right-of-center institutions, is our starting point. Rather than beginning with a set of ideological policy commitments and working backward to find problems that we can solve with whitepapers already written, we believe that conservatism requires identifying and understanding whatever challenges the nation is facing and then applying our principles to the development of solutions. Alongside our two programs of policy research, on Productive Markets<\/a> and Supportive Communities<\/a>, our program on Responsive Politics<\/a> focuses on better understanding the reality of American life today, in workplaces, in families, and in communities. This year especially, its centrality to ongoing policy debates has made clear its importance to building a modern conservative movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The traditional, regularly reported economic statistics provide a vital lens for policymakers, but they can often mask underlying problems by failing to measure what many Americans care about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to explain to people how we got to this point, and why they\u2019re feeling the way they\u2019re feeling, and why things have happened. To me, that\u2019s the most important thing because none of the answers in a republic are possible without people understanding the why. Why is it happening? The why is what leads you to what we need to do about it. So that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>Senator Marco Rubio on the American Compass Podcast<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The question of middle-class security provides a good example. How is it that economists report steady growth in the inflation-adjusted income of the typical family, yet families often feel that it has become harder than ever to make ends meet? American Compass\u2019s Cost-of-Thriving Index<\/a> (COTI), expanding upon work that Oren Cass first did at the Manhattan Institute in 2020, provides an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COTI shows the growing financial pressure on families by tracking the cost of the major components of middle-class security (health care, housing, transportation, education, and food) alongside the wages of a typical worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1985, for instance, a typical male breadwinner could support a family of four on about 40 weeks of income; in 2022, that same family would require 62 weeks of work to get by\u2014a problem, there being only 52 weeks in a year. The differences between COTI\u2019s methodology and standard measures of inflation highlight the distance between how families often experience the economy and how economists model it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conservative policymakers like Vice President Mike Pence and Senator J.D. Vance have cited COTI\u2019s findings, as have commentators from Tucker Carlson to Henry Olsen to Micah Meadowcroft. The Aspen Institute featured it at last year\u2019s Ideas Festival. But it challenges the notion held dear in segments of the Old Right that markets necessarily deliver good outcomes for workers. Thus, scholars at the American Enterprise Institute have devoted intense energy to attacking the work, publishing three different whitepapers in the past year attempting to make the case that supporting a family has never been easier.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Both the Wall Street Journal<\/em> and Financial Times<\/em> dedicated feature coverage to the issue this year, coming down in support of COTI\u2019s contribution to understanding America. \u201cForget the Cost of Living. What\u2019s the Cost of Thriving in America<\/a>?\u201d asked the Journal<\/em>\u2019s \u201cThe Numbers\u201d column. As \u201cthe dad of a 3-year-old, with another child on the way,\u201d wrote Josh Zumbrun, \u201cCass\u2019s index resonates with me.\u201d The FT<\/em>\u2019s \u201cLex\u201d column concluded<\/a> that COTI\u2019s \u201cmessage is right. Middle-class Americans are feeling the squeeze.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complaints this past year of a \u201clabor shortage\u201d have brought to the fore a similar disconnect in understandings of the labor market. Analysts inclined to see the economy from the perspective of businesses have lamented the difficulty in hiring workers and the pressure to raise wages. Many have called for higher immigration to hold wages down. But what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls a labor shortage, most Americans experience as a \u201ctight labor market\u201d\u2014one in which they can command a higher wage for their work, better conditions, and more control over their schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In One Simple Trick for Raising Wages<\/a><\/em>, our in-depth collection on labor economics and immigration policy, we rejected the idea of \u201cjobs Americans won\u2019t do\u201d and the need for public policy to provide employers with as much labor as they want at the price they want to pay. This message is one that resonates across the political spectrum: American Moment featured the work in an hour-long interview for its Moment of Truth podcast, and The Atlantic <\/em>adapted an essay from the collection for its Ideas section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the 2024 presidential primary campaign began in earnest this fall, we kicked off our Issues 2024 project with a poll of Republican voters on the issues that matter most to them. We found a substantial preference for the New Right\u2019s worker-first framing of key economic challenges to the Old Right\u2019s business-friendly approach. Fewer than 30% of voters still emphasize Old Right issues while more than 40% give preference instead to New Right issues like globalization, financialization, and worker power. We also used our polling to inform a series of policy briefs aimed at campaigns and the media, highlighting what voters care about and how policymakers can address their concerns with concrete proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charting the Course<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the Next Generation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

While our progress defining conservatism for the next generation receives the most public attention, we work just as hard at developing the next generation of conservative leaders. American Compass is establishing what the \u201ceconomic consensus is going to be,\u201d in the words of the Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u2019s Gerard Baker. The New York Times<\/em>\u2019s David Brooks describes our work \u201cpushing a working-class agenda\u201d as critical \u201cif the Republican Party is to thrive, intellectually and politically.\u201d Our success thus requires a community ready to carry those ideas forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heart of this effort is our membership group, now nearly 200 strong. These young policy professionals work in law, government, economics, journalism, and the private sector. And they have grown over the past three years not only in numbers, but also in the depth of their relationships, becoming an authentic community that connects people invested in each other\u2019s success and fosters new projects that would not otherwise have happened. American Compass has helped dozens of members to find new jobs, move forward in their careers, and succeed in their work. As importantly, members are helping each other do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year we also launched our series of Capitol Hill trainings. Hundreds of House and Senate staff have attended presentations on topics ranging from family policy and education reform to trade, tariffs, and industrial policy. We have continued hosting Sorties, our daylong seminars on complex policy topics like competition, financialization, and immigration. And our annual members retreat continues to grow, this year hosting more than 150 people\u2014both members and their families\u2014on Maryland\u2019s Eastern Shore for a weekend of both policy debates and social activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With each passing month, the center of gravity in American conservatism shifts further toward American Compass\u2019s ideas. For instance, when the Intercollegiate Studies Institute\u2019s Daniel McCarthy interviewed Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts on the occasion of the Washington behemoth\u2019s 50th anniversary, they focused almost exclusively on the set of issues that American Compass has moved front and center: China, industrial policy, family policy, labor. \u201cHeritage has taken up the language and spirit of the populist insurgents,\u201d concluded McCarthy, \u201cand some of their policies as well.\u201d Our proposals\u2014from a ban on bachelor\u2019s degree requirements and a workforce training grant to worker representation on corporate boards and protection from unfair labor practices\u2014anchored the chapter on labor in the Project 2025 conservative policy agenda that Heritage published.<\/p>\n\n\n

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More dogmatic members of the Old Right, meanwhile, are well aware that they are being left behind. This summer, a group of establishment heavyweights released a \u201cstatement of principles\u201d for what they call \u201cFreedom Conservatism,\u201d essentially a restatement of Reagan-era orthodoxy. \u201cThere\u2019s a perception that for a lot of politicians out there, particularly Republican politicians, that the only game in town is the nationalists,\u201d lamented Avik Roy, who convened the group. \u201cThat coalition of people that represented the Reagan coalition needed to stand up and be counted, to say, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re still here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Michael Schaffer wrote in Politico<\/em><\/a>, the effort amounted to \u201cthe right-of-center equivalent of praising mom and apple pie\u201d but \u201cmade a splash precisely because so many old Republican shibboleths have moved from being stump-speech cliches to being subjects of actual disagreement among conservatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And in that debate, a lot of the energy has come from the folks launching once-unthinkable broadsides from the right against \u201cmarket fundamentalism,\u201d \u201clibertarian dogma,\u201d \u201cZombie Reaganism\u201d and other alleged vices of the pre-2016 GOP elite. Once derided as a half-baked effort to intellectualize Trumpy applause lines, the nationalistic, market-skeptical right has in short order incubated its own establishment of organizations, major public events and Beltway wonk-world celebs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, after several years of relatively polite debates about the merits of industrial policy or tariffs, it has drawn something that, for political-idea warriors, may be the ultimate compliment: A throat-clearing manifesto of condemnation signed by some of the biggest names in Washington\u2019s conservative ideas ecosystem.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We take the compliment gladly. But we are just getting started. Our publications and events are what grab the headlines, but equally important are the investments we make behind the scenes. A great deal of our time is devoted to developing our membership and building a broad-based coalition through a variety of strategies. This year, that work has paid off more than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing Our Membership<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our membership group has grown in both depth and breadth this year, with 170 members spread across 21 states and three countries. Our members form an incredible community, a network that leads regularly to new projects, career opportunities, and policy developments. We have members in leading roles on Capitol Hill, at nonprofits, and in media, law, and academia, whose paths might never cross but for American Compass.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The highlight of our year is always the annual membership retreat on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We are thrilled to be able to bring together members along with their families for a weekend of policy discussions, trivia, an industrial policy wargame, and plenty of fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n

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