A 19Th-Century Campaign
Olasky, Marvin
A 19th-Century Campaign by Marvin Olasky Bob Dole exasperates conservatives. Caught in philosophical contradictions, condemned for inarticulateness, carped at for lack of personality, he is...
...He produced a version of the Bible purged of the supernatural-but did not publish it in his lifetime...
...Make him tell heart-rending stories...
...Now, we do not know much about the personal theological beliefs of candidate Dole...
...Cool him down...
...today's Republican revolution can triumph the same way...
...Since Dole cannot explain why Roe v. Wade should be overturned, he should simply say, "Right to abortion's not in the Constitution...
...And there was lots of talk about how to improve him...
...But even if Dole is a theological blank, he understands the need to build alliances by showing respect for his allies...
...He minimized his speech-making, even to the point of sending State of the Union messages over to Congress in writing, a custom continued by his successors into this century...
...He also proposed a treaty with the Kaskaskian Indians that provided federal money to build a church and support a minister...
...He could hang out on his Capitol sundeck receiving a steady relay of delegations from the states...
...And yet he wins our reluctant votes, and now we're all stuck with him...
...The first has to do with swing voters and coalitions...
...Obviously, Dole needs a pro-life running mate to keep Christian conservatives from bolting, but what if he also designated someone like Chuck Colson-the Nixon assistant who became a born again Christian following Watergate and who has spent the past two decades doing good deeds and giving good speeches- to be secretary of health and human services...
...Last time I checked...
...Here again, history suggests an option-speak sparingly-and Jefferson provides the model...
...These proponents of "holy government" are the swing voters in American politics, since at times they can be drawn into a big-government coalition, at other times into alliance with the forces of liberty...
...Here, abortion is key, and Dole needs to hew to his years-long pro-life voting record...
...Colson, who is probably second only to Billy Graham in respect among evangelicals, could help Dole win not just grudging acceptance but enthusiastic support from most of the Buchanan voters...
...In the American Revolution, a small-government/holy-government coalition ousted the big-government British...
...Dole's inarticulateness leaves his handlers hustling to figure out the minimum amount of public speechifying that a late-20th-century campaign allows...
...It used to be understood that personal views were less important in politics than what a party or coalition stood for...
...Local TV stations would eat up video feeds showing groups from their communities conferring with the candidate...
...In 1996 it would be hard for Dole to pass up presidential debates and other near-obligatory appearances...
...Conventional wisdom puts off cabinet nominations until after the election, so that critics do not have more targets...
...Jefferson kept his radical theology out of the public eye and gained support by pushing projects desired by the Christian conservatives of his time...
...When World magazine interviewed him last November, he acknowledged that he was not much of a Bible reader and could not think of a situation where Scripture had influenced his thinking on an issue-except, he said, that he'd "been active in food stamp legislation, WIC legislation," as if the Bible supported those programs...
...At the polls on March 12 and at the caucuses that evening, there was support but little enthusiasm for the candidate...
...Jefferson was a firm believer in small government, but he worked hard to build an alliance with many who cared most about holy government...
...He considered high-flown presidential rhetoric ostentatious, better suited to a monarchy than a republic...
...Instead, he spoke admiringly of Christianity as "inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man" and swore that the federal government would not get in the way of the freedom to practice religion...
...But when a candidate is rhetorically impaired, he needs help during the campaign...
...In his second inaugural address, Jefferson, who did not espouse the efficacy of prayer, even asked for "the favor of that Being in whose hands we are" and invited the assembly to join with him "in supplications...
...Meanwhile, Dole the doer, not the talker, can display the lack of pretension that is precisely what should trump an administration built on pretense...
...Of course, this is all wrong...
...His best hope is to stick to his business as majority leader and run a 19th-century "front-porch" campaign...
...Several appointees-to-be, along with an eloquent vice presidential candidate, could carry the ball in 1996, as surrogates typically did in the 19th century...
...Still others care less about government's size than its use, to foster morality...
...While president, he served as chairman of the school board of Washington, D.C., and authored its plan of education, which used the Bible and Watt's Hymnal as texts...
...He always treated members of his coalition with respect...
...The Texas primary, in which I voted, was typical...
...Caught in philosophical contradictions, condemned for inarticulateness, carped at for lack of personality, he is content to claim he is a doer, not a talker...
...Since the religious right of his era feared that French revolutionary atheism would soon cross the Atlantic, Jefferson publicly separated himself from the bayonet-backed impulse that he had once supported...
...Warm him up...
...Dole, then, has to look beyond Pat Buchanan's personality and ask what the Republican nominee can deliver to Christian conservatives-what they want the most...
...Meanwhile, the Dole campaign could revive the 19th-century tradition of emphasizing surrogates with clout, people likely to be part of a Dole cabinet...
...But he can win by adapting for the end of the 20th century some political strategies that Thomas Jefferson and others used at the end of the 18th and for much of the 19th...
...These actions in support of Christian faith were all the more remarkable because Jefferson himself did not believe in the essence of Christianity, the divinity of Christ...
...Marvin Olasky is a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation and the editor of World, a Christian weekly news magazine...
...To do so, it must heed another lesson from history: Submerge discussion of personal beliefs...
...Today's Republican party, in a nation going through a spiritual awakening, wins elections by uniting Main Street businessmen with eyes-to-the-skies evangelicals and traditional Catholics...
...Bob Dole cannot win by attempting to look younger or otherwise relying on spin...
...Since he seems unable to give a coherent speech about abortion, Dole the doer should visit pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, which calmly educate pregnant women and show them alternatives to abortion...
...Now, as 200 years ago, some voters yearn for liberty and small government, while others prefer the security of big government...
...He should embrace their volunteer counselors, literally and metaphorically...
...Don't worry so much about the innermost convictions of candidates, but emphasize their public commitments...
Vol. 1 • April 1996 • No. 28
