Legacy of Dole Defeat: Struggle to Reenergize Spirit of the GOP

“It’s the economy, stupid” once again proved its power. Let’s acknowledge a basic political fact: Challengers Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton won by running against poor economies. Incumbent presidents Carter and Bush lost defending poor economies, and incumbent presidents Reagan and Clinton won with relatively good economies. With luck, timing and a Republican Congress that kept his liberalism in check for the last two years, Clinton capitalized on this historic pocketbook reality.

Bob Dole is many things: courageous, a patriot and an accomplished legislator (and who could not admire his Herculean “96-hour marathon”?). But inspirational he is not. Americans like and want presidents who project leadership, optimism and hope. It was no surprise to learn that Clinton assiduously studied Reagan campaigns of ’80 and ’84.

Dole told us enough times that he was optimistic, but he never sounded optimistic or looked optimistic--reminiscent of the unfortunate visuals witnessed during the Nixon-Kennedy debates.

We also knew Dole’s heart wasn’t in his economic plan. He was never really a supply-sider. His voting record had enough contradictions in it for Clinton to effectively capitalize on it and create voter doubt. Indeed, by virtue of his role as Senate majority leader, Dole’s voting record was so riddled with compromise, we never really knew what he believed in strongly.

Bill Rusher, one of the founding fathers of modern conservatism, recently stated in an address at Princeton University, “Let’s face it: There is something about the typical conservative that scares the hell out of a lot of people. We are forever forgetting the late Sen. George Murphy’s wise advice: ‘You can say many things if you say them kindly, and with a smile.’ Ronald Reagan never forgot that.”

Bob Dole is no Ronald Reagan. Few people are. Dole attempted to compensate for these political shortcomings by selecting Jack Kemp. But in the end, it could never be enough. We elect presidents, not vice presidents.

And it is on social issues that Bill Rusher’s statement also rings true. In this imperfect world, filled with imperfect people, the conservative social values agenda as enunciated--notwithstanding its worthiness--sounds judgmental, self-righteous and turns people off.

The irony is that Bill Clinton knows we are right on the values issues and stole many of them away, but delivered them with the compassion of Bing Crosby in “The Bells of St. Mary’s.” Conservatives preach like Karl Malden in “Pollyanna.”

The answer to “why” the character issue didn’t work in ’92 or ’96 confounds me. I suspect there is no one explanation for why the voters rejected one man with unassailable integrity and reelected another man whose character is so obviously flawed. Unfortunately for America, the worst is yet to come as presidential scholars, prosecutors and even Democrat pols liken this administration’s foul ways to Watergate and predict even more prosecutions. Kenneth Starr, not Bob Dole, was and remains the potentially more dangerous and implacable opponent.

We lost the White House again, and it hurts. We achieved a historic reelection of a Republican-dominated Congress, but conservative stalwarts Andrea Seastrand and Bill Baker in Congress are gone. And Bob Dornan is barely holding on with a 200-plus vote margin, no doubt the effect of a quixotic presidential campaign whose intentions were never realized, understood or liked by his constituents or the county party establishment.

The loss of control in the state Assembly and the loss of a state Senate seat are major setbacks.

Much needs to be done in 1998 in preparation for 2000. Who will reenergize our state and national parties? Who will emerge as our most effective and charismatic speakers? Why does it seem we do better as challengers than as governors? Will the Jack Kemp inclusionists or Pat Buchanan rejectionists take over the party? And will conservatives, as Bill Rusher says we must, stop scaring the hell out of the voters? Will we remember our Reagan roots and that shining city on a hill whose doors are open to all, or circle the wagons and keep preaching to the choir?

The struggle for the soul and style of the Republican Party is about to rage from Eureka to San Diego, from California to Maine. Stay tuned. The next four years will be exciting ones for Republicans and all Americans.