The Nation's Pulse / The Republicans in Mid-America

...On the contrary, the American national character they see in him is what they see in themselves: straightforwardness, tenacity, clear-eyed realism best expressed in earthy, well-informed common sense...

...His rictal grin, phony as a Lions Club tail-twister's, inspires derision among the normally tolerant, .who recall the visage of Jimmy Carter and shudder...

...30 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 1988...

...In short, Mr...

...In these parts the smart money is betting he will be the first to fall, unless Pierre du Pont beats him to it...

...Until now, ordinary Republicans, particularly Midwesterners, have welcomed newcomers with the tacit understanding that nothing much would change as a result: refugees from FDR's Democratic New Deal coalition were taken in as provisional members in the hope that they would soon adapt themselves to the GOP's way of doing things...

...Bush and their family, a wealth of decency, kindness, and urbanity, cultivated knowledge of what ought to matter most in life...

...But Republicans have seldom been challenged within their own councils by so intense and insistent a crowd as the Christian rightists...

...Kemp has already proved himself useful in the ventilation of issues—the campaign would be stuffier without him—but he is regarded from a Midwestern perspective as a back-up, not a starter...

...Bush better...

...Dole is identified primarily with deficit reduction, restoration of economic stability, and broader-based prosperity, all of which are sensible concerns in the Middle West...

...The knavish taunt of "wimp" attacks Mr...

...Nowhere in America does the question of character count for more than in the Middle West, where one's judgment and conduct, private and public alike, have never been matters of mere fashion...

...ences, Republicans were self-consciously genteel, alarmed at the thought of a scene...

...None of the extremist groups of the past—Birchers, Liberty Lobbyists, reactionaries—ever made deep, lasting inroads...

...Probably, no presidential candidate in the history of the Republic has ever been so abused for being a gentleman...

...One senses in him and, moreover, in Mrs...

...Still it is curious that this most prominent soldier-statesman since George Catlett Marshall (except, of course, for Dwight D. Eisenhower) rouses a fever of distrust...

...At the same time, for all the outward shows of single-minded unity, Republican activists have at one another with about thesame amount of pettiness that special-interest Democrats work up among themselves...

...Just as the Democrats were caught napping in the last Illinois primary by Lyndon LaRouche's opportunists, so might the Republicans of Iowa, Michigan, and elsewhere in the Middle West find themselves overwhelmed by Robertson's raiders who know how to sign up voters, pack them at polling sites, and control meetings...

...Alan Simpson of Wyoming may hold the edge), and he gives off a pep-rally cheeriness, that of an earnest, presentable fellow who can balance the outlines of deep thought with the concerns of an urban social worker...

...What Republicans say they like about Senator Dole is toughness and determination...

...To his sorrow and the nation's, Mr...

...In an age when the characters of public officials and eminent citizens in general are exposed to merciless scrutiny, it, is reassuring to have George Bush in the thick of things...

...Bush: a patrician appearance and manner of speech that must be given a regular-guy treatment for mass consumption...

...Conventional Republicans can be fervent in their loyalties, but few are used to dealing with the likes of hot-eyed religionists who hold their cause to be the will of God...

...Robertson their candidate, although they may have to put up with his more determined supporters for some time to come...

...In campaigns past, whatever the width of their differKent Owen is Indiana editor of The American Spectator...

...The problem becomes one of how to dramatize as vividly as possible the forcefulness of the Dole personality, which comes across as coarse-grained, rough-edged, flat, and flinty, not unlike much of Kansas itself...

...Though often complacent as becomes the better sort of people, they were correct, unless, of course, there were some higher principle to be served...

...The senior senator from Kansas should expect built-in support from the Middle West, and that he has, particularly in the western reaches...

...Indeed, it is within the gift of that fateful mediumto make sound and thoughtful men appear vague, and the shallow and glib appear decisive...

...That sense is reinforced by his sardonic wit, taken to indicate he is smart, can look out for himself, and sees through courtiers and phonies...

...It is also why interoceanic America can generally resolve the tensions and conflicts of the age more wisely than the nation's bicoastal extremists...

...In fact, the antics of the Robertsonites confirm the Midwestern Republican's conviction that sound politics, like sound government, requires caution and moderation, a deliberate refusal to be lathered into reckless enthusiasm...

...If his late summer appearances in Indianapolis were a fair sample of his powers, he fell short of the expectations of many Republicans who were ready to join his camp, not because of any firm opposition to the Vice President but because of doubts that he can be elected against, say, Mario Cuomo, if it should come to that teasing eventuality...

...Consequently, Midwestern Republicans have reason to believe George Bush is that finest of public men, the principled idealist whose actions are tempered by the lessons of history and an understanding of the changing elements of real life...

...If one can tell the continental drift from an Indiana vantage—a shaky perch with partially obstructed sight-lines—it looks as though George Bush will come out on top...

...No doubt it's unfortunate Mr...

...The general's hard-boiled pragmatism should appeal to urban Republicans whose appreciation of superbly executed careerism could light on no fitter exemplar...

...With such a base of organizational support, the Vice President must be described as the decided favorite, if not quite a cinch...

...That is, if we just don't get too cussed smug about it...

...His standing with state committees from Ohio to Nebraska and Minnesota to Missouri is very good, and his appearances at fund-raising dinners and party rallies have left favorable impressions, even on those inclined to doubt that his performance is as remarkable as his resume...

...I f the GOP's right most faction can't 1 find a winner in Pat Robertson, the clear alternative is Rep...

...When THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 1988 29 it comes to specific issues, Mr...

...Through it all darts the suspicion that these are recently acquired items, the discoveries of an autodidact who has not yet formed the connections that derive learning from knowledge...

...Evangelicals and fundamentalists are changing the way Republicans conduct their affairs, making the party, at least in Michigan and Iowa, less clubby and relaxed...

...du Pont is a man worth keeping in mind for other kinds of public service...

...What bothers Republican insiders is the hard-to-calculate strength of the Reverend Pat Robertson's Christian fundamentalists, who last year surprised standard-bred Michigan Republicans by taking over enough precinct delegate selections to become a forceful presence in the state committee...

...For Republicans of this kidney, it's bad form to intrude religion into politics, not only because it offends the canons of taste, but also because it threatens to undo common sense...

...General Haig's place in the campaign is less one of serving to stress such issues as the Strategic Defense Initiative and the reduction of intermediate-range nuclear weapons than of provoking a unilateral attack from one of his fellow candidates...

...His gibes at George Bush seemed petty and peevish, and his emphatic concern for the baby boomers' future burdens overplayed...

...That absence of internal opposition made for a smug centrism, which eventually co-opted almost every ideologue and upstart...

...The ex-quarterback from Buffalo is as lively and quick-witted a stump-speaker as the GOP can provide nowadays (Sen...

...The Rev...

...Indiana Republicans who have dealt with him through the Hudson Institute, the think tank based in Indianapolis, whose board of directors he had chaired, speak highly of him and his accomplishments in Delaware, which may have been harder for a du Pont to bring off than one would suppose...

...Thus, whatever his motives, he has given the impression of a man who accepts bad advice from his handlers and comes to grief because of it...

...Governor du Pont had, before the cavalcade of television panels, piqued more than routine interest with unconventional views on restructuring the Social Security system and mandatory drug testing in public schools, notions bound to be controversial...

...Despite the machinations of his followers, Pat Robertson himself has not made much headway...

...Then, too, he suffers from a disability he shares with Mr...

...Why his campaign should be in the doldrums in the Midwest as elsewhere is puzzling...

...In many ways those are the qualities they also see in George Bush...

...Maybe somewhere in Chicagoland, Alexander Haig can find support for his bluff, gruff, but ill-defined campaign...

...But Pete du Pont has already come a cropper in the TV steeplechase...

...Those who admire his record 28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 1988 in Congress and think him underrated are willing to have him as Vice President, which may be his proper niche...

...In a hoarse, energetic delivery he makes everything sound much the same, every proposal, every project, every scheme propounded without the slightest doubt as to its wonder-working power...

...He is not naturally eloquent, and his words are often too casual, even downright banal...

...Republicans who have watched him operate at close range insist his commanding presence enables him to work his will in negotiations...

...On the evidence of how the Robertsonites are behaving in Iowa, overthrowing party regulars with parliamentary maneuvers and caucus-packing forays, the GOP's custodians are going to have to get tougher and shrewder, prepared to repel boarders with weapons sharper than sweet reason and good fellowship...

...While he attracts few adherents among Midwestern Republicans, he draws watchful notice because he seems ready to saber his rivals in the coolness of debate...

...rr o no one's surprise the real struggle for the Republican nomination is between George Bush and Robert Dole...

...Although his chances are scarcely encouraging, he is the one Republican candidate who hints at holding more substance in reserve—intelligence, breadth of intellectual curiosity, administrative forcefulness, potentiality for resourceful leadership—than he has so far been able to display on television...

...Opportunism rarely disqualifies men from public office, unless such nimbleness of timing and positioning seems blatantly overreaching...

...Because of the relative complexity of the process (or, more accurately, its simplicity and ease of access), the Michigan choosing-bees, like the Iowa caucus system, are vulnerable to onslaughts by church bus-loads of Republicans-come-lately...

...Besides, it's damned unnerving to play politics with people so earnest that they talk in tongues, think in theological categories, and believe themselves divinely commissioned...

...Obviously, the travails of the last year do little to quicken the public's confidence in television evangelists, whether they are soliciting prayers, cash, or votes...

...It is simply that they know and like Mr...

...Generally, crusaders expend their energies in one grand campaign and then wander away, once the novelty wears off...

...If the Iowa caucuses were to produce a large vote for Robertson, large enough to discomfit George Bush and Robert Dole, it might be useful mischief...

...In a sense, this makes the difference between settlement conservatism and movement conservatism: the understanding reached through considered experience that the whole of a man's character must count for more than the partiality of his faith in ideological or theological abstractions...

...Then again, any politician with such a passion for the intricacies of economics is likely to lose voters who fail to grasp the romance of marginal utility or the Laffer curve...

...Bush has been mocked for scrupulous loyalty to the President, conscientious discharge of the duties entrusted to him, and for convictions about honor, integrity, and the obligation of public service for those who enjoy the privilege of good fortune...

...All the same, Midwestern Republicans are by no means opposed to Bob Dole...

...Bush's gentle breeding and good manners, mistaking gentlemanly virtues for weakness and vacillation...

...At the time, the uprising was publicized as embarrassing to the party regulars who should have seen it coming, namely the Bush supporters...

...Our egalitarians are quick to shame courtesy as a grave offense to a militantly classless America in which rudeness ought to be the standard...

...Midwesterners pride themselves on their staying power—they either come of pioneer stock or acquire what it takes to settle—and that old habit of not giving in to adversity, of not panicking in the face of attack, should enable them to succeed...

...But these are hardly moral defects...

...Jack Kemp...

...However, legislative talent, like the legendary prowess of Lyndon Baines Johnson, may not register so strongly on Americans at large beyond the confines of the Capitol...

...Robertson claims an exemption from the obloquy heaped on his shadierbrethren, for he can exhibit more reputable tokens of achievement—bachelor's and law degrees, experience in the broadcasting and education industries, random civic involvement...

...Somehow or other Congressman Kemp's level of enthusiasm, whether for urban enterprise zones, tax rate reduction, or social safety nets, stays at a uniformly high pitch...

...The trick, of course, is to keep the loyalty—at least the votes—of the Robertsonites without letting them grab control of the party organization...

...Bush reveals a boyish exuberance that is less than becoming, his voice tightening to a whine...

...The parsonly soothingness of his speech also sticks in the craw...

...There is about Mr...

...Which in General Haig's case may be the trouble...

...Some who have heard him speak, both extemporaneously and from texts, report the senator is less articulate and cogent than they had supposed...

...For Midwestern Republicans that way has usually meant a deliberate avoidance of combative, confrontational intra-party politics...

...Unless Midwestern Republicans acquire a taste for moralizing—a decent respect for the less objectionable pieties and hypocrisies is our custom—they will not make Mr...

...With the exception of Parson Robertson, none of the Republican candidates rouses his Midwestern supporters to unseemly passion...

...Bush a sense of proportion, a disposition to act in moderation, a self-assured capacity for learning the common good, unimpeded by dogmatism, ideology, or sentimentality...