It's not particularly surprising that President Joe Biden has become a de facto champion of industrial policy, with his National Economic Council director calling for a "modern industrial strategy" involving "strategic public investments" to bring about "the full potential of our nation's economy." A hallmark of left-of-center economics has always been a high degree of comfort with attempts to manage the economy from the top down.
More surprising has been the rise in recent years of a cadre of self-identifying conservatives who think industrial policy is wise or even necessary. Prominent within that cadre is Oren Cass, who founded the group American Compass in 2020 to push back against the free market "dogmatism" that he says has caused generations of Republicans to resist economic meddling on principle.
