Oren Cass
Conservative labor economist; author of The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America (2018); founder of American Compass; NatCon 1 speaker; debated industrial policy resolution (passed 99-55)
Who He Is
Oren Cass is the most serious economic thinker in the New Right’s orbit who focuses specifically on labor and industrial policy. A former Romney campaign policy director, he broke with mainstream conservative economic orthodoxy to argue that the American economy had been systematically structured to benefit capital over workers, and that conservative governance had been complicit in this.
The Once and Future Worker (2018)
Cass’s book argues that American policy has prioritized consumption over production, and that the health of working-class communities requires a vibrant labor market — not welfare transfers — as its foundation. He advocated for industrial policy, skepticism of free trade, and rethinking conservative assumptions about the primacy of GDP and consumer welfare.
The book positioned Cass as the most substantively heterodox economic thinker on the right: he was willing to criticize Reagan-era economics from the right, not merely from populist instinct but from policy analysis.
NatCon 1 (July 2019)
Cass debated libertarian Richard Reinsch at NatCon 1 on the resolution “America should adopt an industrial policy.” The resolution passed 99 votes in favor and 55 against — a striking result at a gathering where many attendees still had libertarian economic instincts.
American Compass
Cass founded the think tank American Compass to institutionalize his heterodox conservative economics — a project explicitly aimed at moving the right away from the free-market consensus and toward a more worker-focused, industrial policy-friendly politics.
Significance
Cass represents the economic populism strand of the New Right — the camp that most directly challenges the fusionist inheritance on economics. His alignment with figures like Julius Krein and Michael Lind on questions like industrial policy and trade creates the possibility of a genuinely post-libertarian conservative economics, though the dominance of culture-war issues in actual MAGA governance has consistently crowded it out.
Cross-References
- National Conservatism — NatCon 1 speaker
- Julius Krein — fellow economic heterodox; both spoke at NatCon 1 in similar vein
- Fusionism — the Reagan-era economic consensus he challenges
- MAGA New Right — the political coalition he attempts to provide economic substance for