OPEN FORUM: Thoughts on being Republican

By ACE ROBISON

I’m a Republican. It’s not easy being a Republican these days but, as I tell myself: hard as it is being a Republican it would be impossible for me to be a Democrat.
I’m an Eisenhower Republican. A Reagan Republican.
What does that mean? First let me tell you what it does not mean. It does not mean that I longingly wish for the good-ol-days that never were.

I’m a realist. A pragmatist. That has occasionally gotten me into trouble with those who, seeing things only from a partisan or dogmatic perspective, have thought me disloyal. But you see, I’ve always believed I must respect the other guy’s point of view – even (perhaps especially) when I disagree with him – if I want to get anything accomplished in a system founded on the principle of compromise. But with realism and pragmatism there must be truthfulness, trustworthiness, integrity, consistency.

Ronald Reagan thought truthfulness to be the only foundation on which something strong and good and lasting can be built. He believed that only truth endures. Lies eventually die. Reagan’s public career was devoted to countering the political lies that had been in place so long they had become institutionalized.
Thirty years earlier Eisenhower faced a similar dilemma.

Both presidents, in their own way, dealt with the problem in the same way. Their approach was to face the problem with integrity and truthfulness and consistency. The lesser presidents of the century didn’t, couldn’t, or wouldn’t.

Those two presidents defined Republicanism as I am willing to accept it. Any platform or political policy – or for that matter any politician without clarity of vision, without consistency of thought, without integrity of principle, without foundational truth – will themselves be weak and will weaken the underpinnings of our fragile political system.
The Founders often spoke of these attributes as virtue.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious they have more need for masters.”

George Washington said it this way, “There is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.”

The colonial firebrand Patrick Henry added religion to the equation. He said, “Virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, and this alone renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed…. but so long as our principles are sound, there is no danger.”

It has been said that the most dangerous man in the world is he who thinks himself clever but isn’t. A cynical German diplomat of the nineteenth century once said that it’s no trick to fool a man who thinks himself clever, but an honest man, well it can be a real challenge to fool him.

Neither Eisenhower nor Reagan thought themselves clever. Both were. Others have thought themselves clever and were not and have led us into harm’s way.

Toward the end of his life Ronald Reagan was asked how he viewed his leadership. He replied, “I never thought of myself as a great man, just a man committed to great ideas. I’ve always believed that individuals should take priority over the state. History has taught me that this is what sets America apart—not to remake the world in our image, but to inspire people everywhere with a sense of their own boundless possibilities. There’s no question I am an idealist, which is another way of saying I am an American.”

And that’s why I’ll remain a Republican.