Claremont McKenna Professsors on the Declaration; the Future of the GOP

This morning I got an email from some friends that featured a link from Professor Charles R. Kesler's lecture at Princeton's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. The entire hour plus discussion is well worth watching and can be found here.

Professor John J. Pitney Jr. wrote an op-ed for National Review Online, provocatively titled, "Curtails for the GOP?" It humourously pointed out that nearly everytime a political party suffers a setback, the punditocracy write it off as finished, moribund, and leaderless. Here's a good representative example. To the incoming freshmen who read this blog, you must do everything in your power to get into Pitney's excellent Gov. 20 Honors. I suggest emailing him to ask for a spot. Anyways, here are the examples.

Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory put the Democrats back in power and the GOP back in the “leaderless” box. Right after the 1992 election, one representative observation came from a Knight-Ridder reporter: “Republicans face civil war in their party. Leaderless now and dispirited, Republicans are bracing for a nasty struggle among their contentious factions.”

During the George W. Bush presidency, the Democrats were “leaderless” again. A Gannett story on the 2002 midterm election noted: “Democrats are in disarray and leaderless, with no compelling vision for America.” After Bush’s reelection, Newsweek’s Howard Fineman wrote: “The Democrats are leaderless and reeling, seemingly bereft of inspiring ideas.” A few months later, he returned to the theme: “Leaderless and intellectually rudderless, the Democrats are desperate for issues, and they have decided (to the extent there is a ‘they’) to make a piñata of [Tom] DeLay.” Even after Katrina,The New Republic’s Ryan Lizza said: “Democrats are, at the moment, leaderless. There are few Democrats who command enough attention to make the party's case to the country

Minus the historical parallels, my remarks were much the same when I spoke about the future . Who is the leader of the Republican party? You are. Go out and lead. Perhaps its time the GOP dust off a little left wing sloganeering: "Where the People Lead, the Leaders Will Follow." Or, if you're lame and actually thought this song was good, don't wait for a hero, be one. Freedom requires toughness, so stop being a girlie man and defend thy wallet and thy country, for both are imperil. Now is the time.

Oh, and dispense with the Reagan worship. Last I checked, Ronald Reagan, like Michael Jackson, was still dead (peace be upon them). It's still socially acceptable to vote for him or Big Bird, Superman, and the Count when a Democrat is running unopposed, however.