# Oren Cass Conservative policy intellectual and founder of American Compass (2020), the think tank that has become the institutional home for the post-2016 right's break with free-market orthodoxy. Cass argues that conservatism should prioritize the dignity of work, domestic manufacturing, and family-supporting wages over GDP-maximizing free trade and financialization — a program laid out in his 2018 book *The Once and Future Worker*. Cass is among the most influential architects of the intellectual case for [[Economic Nationalism]] within the Republican coalition, supplying policy substance (tariffs, industrial policy, sectoral bargaining, anti-offshoring measures) to politicians like [[Marco Rubio]] and [[JD Vance]]. He represents the "respectable," wonkish wing of the movement, distinct from its populist and nativist strands. > [!note] Stub > Minimal page created to support links from the Economic Nationalism build. Expand with American Compass's specific policy fights, the labor-and-markets framework, and his role in the tariff debate.