How the president undermines Republicans’ traditional economic arguments.

By Corey Robin @ NewRepublic.com, Nov. 13

Robin is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump, he is currently at work on a book about Clarence Thomas and blogs at coreyrobin.com.

After suffering one humiliating failure after another this year, Republican lawmakers are attempting to get their agenda back on track with a campaign to cut taxes. But once again, they may find in Donald Trump a less-than-effective advocate for their goals. Not because Trump’s views are inconstant—though they are. Not because Trump is a fair-weather friend—though he is. No, Trump may prove a liability on tax reform because he exposes, more clearly than ever before, the fantasy that undergirds the Republican approach to the economy. Indeed, not since Teddy Roosevelt has the GOP had a leader whose views are more corrosive of the virtues of money and the value of markets [....]