Mike Pence finally went there. In a New Hampshire speech Wednesday, the former vice president took on not just his former boss Donald Trump, but the entire right-wing populist movement that Trump embodies.

Though laced throughout with false equivalence between populism and liberalism, and conveniently leaving out Pence's own years-long role as chief enabler of Trump's norm-wrecking presidency, Pence's speech has opened a valuable conversation about a dangerous movement which, as he rightly suggests, doesn't deserve the tag "conservative."

Populism is politics anchored not by core philosophies like limited government or social justice, but rather by whatever stances appeal in the moment to a sizable swath of the public (invariably hailed as "the people") in defiance of "the elites."

It can swing left or right — Pence correctly labels rabble-rousing progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders as a populist — but its common characteristic is that it, in Pence's words, "prioritizes power over principles." It consolidates that power not with constructive ideas and consensus, but by stoking the fury of the mob.

"In the days to come," Pence asked, "will we be the party of conservatism, or will our party follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles?" He said this "fundamental divide" within the party is "unbridgeable."

Examples include the strange spectacle today of Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and other elected Republicans positioning themselves as enemies of "woke" corporations, turning their backs on the GOP's long-held belief in an unfettered free market in order to encourage and leverage public anger at the corporate trend toward socially progressive policies. Pence's speech referenced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' loopy battle with Disney, noting he "used the power of the state to punish corporations for taking a political stand he disagreed with."

While clearly designed as a strategic move against DeSantis and other fellow candidates for next year's GOP presidential nomination, Pence's speech was also a much-needed warning about what he bluntly called "a populist movement" that is "rising in the Republican Party."

"This growing faction would substitute our faith in limited government and traditional values for an agenda stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage," he said.

That description — personal grievances and performative outrage — may be the best one yet devised to describe so much of the GOP's culture-war histrionics today regarding issues such as classroom curriculum, library collections and transgender medical care.

On foreign policy, populism often promotes a shortsighted "America first" sentiment that isn't ultimately in America's interest. In an apparent swipe at Republicans who, like Hawley, have suggested the U.S. should leave Ukraine to the mercy of Russia's aggression, Pence warned: "The Republican populists would abandon American leadership on the world stage, embracing a posture of appeasement in the face of rising threats to freedom."

"Republican populists would blatantly erode our Constitutional norms," he continued, noting: "A leading candidate last year called for the 'termination' of 'all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution.'"

OK, so Pence didn't entirely go there. The "leading candidate" who suggested suspending the Constitution so he could return to office is, of course, Trump.

Though Pence did manage to utter the dreaded T-word a few times elsewhere in the speech, his hesitation even now to directly link his former boss' name to one of his most outrageous attacks on democracy speaks volumes about the continuing stranglehold this populist pretender still has over his adopted party.

And, of course, Pence's own role in allowing that party to be engulfed by this angry movement cannot be ignored, try as he did in this speech. His description of the Trump administration as a genuinely conservative one whose leader has only now become a populist wrecking ball is utter historical revisionism. Every criticism Pence has for today's populist movement could apply, unaltered, to the presidency he served.

Still, the man who will almost certainly not be sworn in as president in 2025 has offered a valuable assessment of what ails his party, and the stakes involved: "Should the new populism of the right seize and guide our party, the GOP as we have long known it will cease to exist." Whether that's the party's fate will soon be in the hands of Republican primary voters in Missouri and around the country.

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