This might be Trump's Republican Party for many years

In this one moment, Trumpism felt less like a passing phase for Republicans, and more like a long-term passing of the torch, toward a more nationalist party.

Mitch McConnell, perhaps the party's most powerful figure over the last two decades, was booed mercilessly on Monday at the Republican National Convention, in Milwaukee. 

The Republican Senate leader was drowned out while trying to register the primary results for his state of Kentucky in the presidential nomination roll call. Nancy Pelosi would hardly have received a worse reaction from this crowd.

About an hour later, out walked Sen. J.D. Vance onto the same convention floor. And one song was played over the arena loudspeaker, again and again, on a loop, as Donald Trump's running mate worked the celebratory room.

That song was country legend Merle Haggard's America First with lyrics complaining about the U.S. helping the world — exporting democracy, building roads and bridges elsewhere — while needing help at home.

Trump's selection of running mate seems intended to entrench this worldview for years to come. It may be shamefully premature to speculate about the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, but Vance may well lead the party into the 2030s.

The first-term Ohio senator shares Trump's opposition to arming Ukraine, free-market trade and asylum-seekers, and has also proposed more robust business regulations.

There are implications for Canada: If Trump wins this election, Ottawa could find itself under intense pressure to boost defence spending and to negotiate exemptions from new tariffs, not to mention other trade issues. 

It's also notable this week's convention features speakers delivering once-unimaginable messages for a Republican gathering — union leaders have bashed big business, others have bashed NATO — as the party's centre of gravity shifts toward populism and nationalism.

Perhaps tellingly, the party's past is under-represented at this convention. Not a single living Republican president, presidential candidate, vice-president or vice-presidential candidate is speaking in Milwaukee.

One conservative commentator quipped that the torch has been passed from the philosophy of Ronald Reagan to that of the Trump-like Pat Buchanan.

And that's a good thing in the view of some attendees.

Asked to explain the booing of McConnell, one 22-year-old mentioned Reagan. And he didn't mean it as a compliment, which a few years ago might have been viewed here as political apostasy.

"He's still with the old guard," said Garrett Weldin of Delaware, referring to McConnell. "Sort of a Reaganite is what I would refer to him as."