thedrifter
10-19-07, 08:08 AM
Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007
Unlikely Nominees
By Richard Brookhiser
Some Republican conservatives have been threatening to back a third-party candidate for President next year if Rudy Giuliani wins the GOP nomination. Yet the sometimes-liberal former New York City mayor continues to run at or near the top of polls of Republican voters. When do parties reach outside the box for candidates? Do they define the people they nominate--or can a candidate change his party?
Desperation in politics can sometimes cause a major party to look outside its ranks for a standard bearer. In the presidential election of 1812, the Federalists, the strong-government party of the founding era, backed an earlier New York City mayor, DeWitt Clinton. Clinton was born to run: his uncle and mentor George Clinton had been Governor of New York State for 21 years and Vice President for eight; young DeWitt was George's right hand. Both Clintons had spent their careers opposing Federalism, attacking the Constitution when it was up for ratification and joining Thomas Jefferson's small-government Republican Party (ancestor of today's Democrats). But by 1812, the Federalists had lost three presidential elections in a row, and Clinton had become convinced that his party had a glass ceiling for non-Virginians (Uncle George having been relegated to the vice presidency by the rise of James Madison). Most important, Federalists opposed the War of 1812 against Britain, since a British naval blockade would ruin their commercial base, and Clinton was against it too. So the Federalists endorsed Clinton when he challenged Madison's bid for re-election.
Sixty years later, the Democrats faced another incumbent President: war hero Ulysses Grant. To oppose him they tapped Horace Greeley, an eccentric idealist and newspaper editor. Greeley had been an opponent of slavery (he urged Abraham Lincoln to abolish it even before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued) and a supporter of protective tariffs--all anathema to the Democrats of his day. But after the Civil War, Greeley's idealism found a new cause: reaching out to white Southerners by ending Reconstruction. The Democrats, eager to restore the political power of their Southern soul mates, were willing to overlook Greeley's past sins.
In 1940, after two straight losses to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Republicans turned to someone who was barely in their party. Utility executive Wendell Willkie had been a delegate to the 1924 Democratic Convention. But he criticized F.D.R.'s Tennessee Valley Authority as being a power grab by the Federal Government, and key Republicans, including TIME co-founder Henry Luce, thought he would be a fresh face for the GOP. Willkie had changed his party registration in 1939, but not all party regulars appreciated the interloper; Willkie's supposedly grass-roots campaign, quipped Washington hostess Alice Roosevelt Longworth, had sprung from the grass of 10,000 country clubs. Still, a tumultuous Republican Convention picked Willkie to be Roosevelt's third opponent.
A party may take a dramatic turn to an unexpected nominee also as a result of an authentic internal debate about its direction. Republicans continued to struggle with the legacy of F.D.R. after World War II, generally trying to restrain New Deal programs rather than repudiate them. The right wing of the party was largely muzzled until Ronald Reagan won his third race for the nomination and ushered in a new paradigm of supply-side tax cuts and more conservative policies.
Outsiders and rebels add drama to political life. They also often fail. Clinton, Greeley and Willkie lost their respective elections and had little effect on the parties that they had represented. Only Reagan reached the White House and left a permanent mark on politics. An argument that Alexis de Tocqueville made about history applies to political parties as well: aristocratic ages are shaped by a few individuals; democratic ages, by many acting at once. Parties are mule teams with millions of mules. It takes a great deal to get them to change direction.
Ellie
Unlikely Nominees
By Richard Brookhiser
Some Republican conservatives have been threatening to back a third-party candidate for President next year if Rudy Giuliani wins the GOP nomination. Yet the sometimes-liberal former New York City mayor continues to run at or near the top of polls of Republican voters. When do parties reach outside the box for candidates? Do they define the people they nominate--or can a candidate change his party?
Desperation in politics can sometimes cause a major party to look outside its ranks for a standard bearer. In the presidential election of 1812, the Federalists, the strong-government party of the founding era, backed an earlier New York City mayor, DeWitt Clinton. Clinton was born to run: his uncle and mentor George Clinton had been Governor of New York State for 21 years and Vice President for eight; young DeWitt was George's right hand. Both Clintons had spent their careers opposing Federalism, attacking the Constitution when it was up for ratification and joining Thomas Jefferson's small-government Republican Party (ancestor of today's Democrats). But by 1812, the Federalists had lost three presidential elections in a row, and Clinton had become convinced that his party had a glass ceiling for non-Virginians (Uncle George having been relegated to the vice presidency by the rise of James Madison). Most important, Federalists opposed the War of 1812 against Britain, since a British naval blockade would ruin their commercial base, and Clinton was against it too. So the Federalists endorsed Clinton when he challenged Madison's bid for re-election.
Sixty years later, the Democrats faced another incumbent President: war hero Ulysses Grant. To oppose him they tapped Horace Greeley, an eccentric idealist and newspaper editor. Greeley had been an opponent of slavery (he urged Abraham Lincoln to abolish it even before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued) and a supporter of protective tariffs--all anathema to the Democrats of his day. But after the Civil War, Greeley's idealism found a new cause: reaching out to white Southerners by ending Reconstruction. The Democrats, eager to restore the political power of their Southern soul mates, were willing to overlook Greeley's past sins.
In 1940, after two straight losses to Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Republicans turned to someone who was barely in their party. Utility executive Wendell Willkie had been a delegate to the 1924 Democratic Convention. But he criticized F.D.R.'s Tennessee Valley Authority as being a power grab by the Federal Government, and key Republicans, including TIME co-founder Henry Luce, thought he would be a fresh face for the GOP. Willkie had changed his party registration in 1939, but not all party regulars appreciated the interloper; Willkie's supposedly grass-roots campaign, quipped Washington hostess Alice Roosevelt Longworth, had sprung from the grass of 10,000 country clubs. Still, a tumultuous Republican Convention picked Willkie to be Roosevelt's third opponent.
A party may take a dramatic turn to an unexpected nominee also as a result of an authentic internal debate about its direction. Republicans continued to struggle with the legacy of F.D.R. after World War II, generally trying to restrain New Deal programs rather than repudiate them. The right wing of the party was largely muzzled until Ronald Reagan won his third race for the nomination and ushered in a new paradigm of supply-side tax cuts and more conservative policies.
Outsiders and rebels add drama to political life. They also often fail. Clinton, Greeley and Willkie lost their respective elections and had little effect on the parties that they had represented. Only Reagan reached the White House and left a permanent mark on politics. An argument that Alexis de Tocqueville made about history applies to political parties as well: aristocratic ages are shaped by a few individuals; democratic ages, by many acting at once. Parties are mule teams with millions of mules. It takes a great deal to get them to change direction.
Ellie