Historically speaking, populism is nowhere to be found in the Conservative Party’s DNA. In addition, the socio-economic forces against it are very strong, so the government’s objective to “level up” may well fail. For all that, however, BoJo seems sincere about helping the parts of the UK that have been left behind. The GOP, on the other hand, has never put forth any plan to help, say, Kentucky or West Virginia. Why the difference?
For two reasons. First of all, the donor class still calls the tune on economics in the GOP, which has concluded it can’t live without their money any more than it can live without the votes of reactionaries. Second, the GOP doesn’t actually have to help red states in order to win elections. At least until now, reactionary workers have not demanded tax and economic policies which operate in their interests; it has been enough to feed them with cultural resentment and nostalgia about strength and self-reliance. As a result, instead of generating and implementing plausible plans to help reeling red America, the GOP sticks it to blue America by limiting its tax deductions.
You could call it “levelling down.”