About a year ago, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote an incredibly insightful column called “The Class War Before Palin.” In it, he describes the anti-intellectualism that afflicts today’s Republican Party. He explains how politicians like Sarah Palin rail against educated elites and refuse to make an intellectual case for conservatism. “What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals,” Brooks writes, “slipped into a disdain for the educated class as a whole.”
Republicans should address this issue, because anti-intellectualism hurts America. But they should also change their tune, because it would win them votes.
Politics is about ideas. Campaigns are basically about arguments. One person who knows this is Barack Obama. His ability to convincingly communicate liberal ideology stems from his intellectualism. The president is a deep thinker. He is as adept at discussing the details and nuances of public policy as he is at discussing broad philosophical concepts. He can win the argument, because he understands every side of it.
What the Republican Party needs now is someone who is both brilliant and articulate. It needs an intellectual heavyweight who can step into the arena and beat Barack Obama in a battle of ideas. Which is why Newt Gingrich grabbed my attention Sunday when he told C-SPAN he may run for president in 2012.
A former history professor, Gingrich first came to Congress in 1978. He rose to national prominence as the chief architect of the Republican takeover in 1994. Under his leadership, a GOP that had spent 40 years in the political wilderness found its way back to power. In the wake of that success, Gingrich served as Speaker of the House until the end of the Clinton era, effectively pulling the president’s agenda to the center.
There are obstacles Gingrich would need to overcome as a candidate. He would need to tone down the vicious partisanship he became famous for as Speaker. That would be difficult. This is not a man who has John McCain’s fondness for compromise. Nor does he have Barack Obama’s cool and conciliatory temperament when dealing with his political adversaries. Gingrich can be polarizing and even mean.
But he is brilliant. He is a serious thinker and probably one of the most articulate conservatives in America today. Nothing demonstrates this better than the work he has done since leaving the House.
Gingrich has made a new career for himself as a prolific author and ubiquitous Fox News commentator. But he has contributed more to our national dialogue than cable chatter. Over the past few years, he has produced movies on political and historical topics with his wife, traveled the country campaigning for education reform with Al Sharpton and appeared in public service announcements about the climate crisis with Nancy Pelosi. He has started a group called American Solutions that offers serious conservative policy proposals. In between all of that, Gingrich has found time to hit the lecture circuit and convert to Catholicism.
This is a man who has ideas and passion. He has a vision for America and the will to make it a reality. He understands conservative politics, policy and philosophy in a way that people like Sarah Palin never will.
Whether or not Gingrich would be a viable presidential candidate remains to be seen. The odds are against him. He is probably a bit too old. He is probably a bit too polarizing. It may be his time has come and gone. But he should still run.
In a presidential primary, Gingrich could do great things. He could raise the level of dialogue. He could get wonky and philosophical. And, in the aftermath of the Bush presidency and the Palin candidacy, he could prove conservatism can be intellectual again.
Graham Vyse is a junior in the School of Public Affairs and the editorial page editor for The Eagle. You can reach him at gvyse@theeagleonline.com.
