The Republican Party is becoming the party of ideas again

And it's amazing how quickly and quietly it's happened

Paul Ryan
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Susan Walsh))

Perhaps the worst sin of the GOP during the Obama era has been the party's lack of interest in serious, innovative policy.

Thanks to the notion that opposing the White House was enough of an agenda, and the inchoate enthusiasm of the Tea Party, the GOP, it seemed, was great at sound and fury but had no ideas. Anything the GOP did manage to propose was either an old idea from the '80s, just plain awful, or (most often) both.

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Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is a writer and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. His writing has appeared at Forbes, The Atlantic, First Things, Commentary Magazine, The Daily Beast, The Federalist, Quartz, and other places. He lives in Paris with his beloved wife and daughter.