There is an old political critique of Donald Trump, perhaps understandable, that the 45th and favored 47th president of the United States has no ideology, that the Republican turned independent turned Democrat turned Republican turned independent turned Republican is an incoherent and opportunistic ragbag of selfish impulses and populist punchlines.
But Trump's selection Monday of 39-year-old Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio) to be his 2024 vice presidential running mate cements an alternative reality that many have been slow to recognize: "Make America Great Again" is no longer—if it ever was—just a slogan on a hat, but rather a decadelong philosophical transformation of the Republican Party from rhetorical proponent of free markets, entitlement reform, and Pax Americana to protector of the entitlement state against immigration and the working class against the globe-straddling corruption of elites.
