"To Dare Mighty Things"
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious
triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor
spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray
twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
—Theodore
Roosevelt
I've known a lot of brave people. I've even got pieces of
paper from the Air Force labeling me brave, but I never bought it; holding
an airplane
aloft with your sphincter muscle needs a different adjective. What young
people do in combat is not courage of the greatest sort. Your buddies' regard
for you is more powerful than fear to a soldier. Fighting alongside each
other is wired into young men, eclipsing any notion of courage or your own
good sense. The peer group and its pecking order is the most powerful
force in all our lives.
The highest courage would be to purposely alienate yourself from
the peers with whom you have worked hard and won victories and whose respect
you have earned. To do so on a matter of principle is the rarest form of
courage.
So it is with deep humility and amazement that I've learned
that Michael Cudahy, a successful Republican Field Commander, has
decided he can no longer tolerate the Neo-Conservative clique which
has hijacked the Grand Old Party of my and Mr. Cudahy's parents. This is
no abstract event. Cudahy ran 8 states for Dubya's dad, spending
the 1988 Pennsylvania Primary season as a guest in the home of of his friend
Tom Ridge.
Go read
his declaration,
it's more eloquent than any comments I have:
"Over the last 15 years this country has witnessed the
emergence of the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party. During
this time traditional Republicans have witnessed a serious deterioration
of respect for traditional party principles by GOP leaders. A great party
once firmly rooted in the thoughts and policies of visionary presidents
like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight
Eisenhower has lost touch with its history."
It's a stunning announcement. Imagine a German official
declaring in 1934 that he no longer believes in the Nazi party; that he
will instead
be
supporting Polish independence. Further, he announces his intention
before he leaves for Warsaw or has been formally embraced by the Poles.
Our
hypothetical
German would be notable even if he announced it standing on a podium
before the Polish people, but to do so before your new partners even understand
your motives is courage on a Hancockian scale.
Rescuing his Inner Idealist
That's what Michael Cudahy did yesterday. Somehow his inner
idealist won. There are two internal forces competing for the loyalties
of successful people in
any
hierarchy.
You
are proud of your principles, which you nonetheless compromise more each
day as you gain
skill
at working
the politics
of your
workplace or worse, your government. You go along and get along as a trusted
team player until the linkage between your youthful values and your mature
realities comes apart. Usually it's the idealist who drowns.
"This country is hungry to put an end to the partisan
warfare that has consumed this nation for the last 15 years -- at least.
That hunger, and a deep discontent with the status quo
keeps reasserting itself. It raised its head in '96 with the hope that
Colin Powell might run.
It reemerged with the McCain insurgency, and I believe that it will finally
succeed with the candidacy of Howard Dean."
The interesting part is that Cudahy's not going to stop being
a Republican. He understands the great things that Republicans have done for
America, starting with Lincoln. He's still proud of his party and should
be. What he's ashamed of is the behind-the-scenes insurrection managed by
ingenious kleptocrats. Instead of becoming a Democrat, he wants to use his
skills to attract Republicans and Independents to the
Dean
campaign:
"Do not be afraid of all Republicans, because
there are millions of Republicans who are wonderful caring people. Citizens
who embrace the traditions and policies of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore
Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower . . . reach out to them . . . and create
a radical center where all of us can work together -- even when we disagree.
Please
do not tar us all with the same brush. Like all Americans, we love
our country, its values and the principles that have made it great. Equally
important, we are committed to the vision of the founders of our party
who
believed, in the words of Abraham Lincoln that, 'This country with
its institutions belongs to the people who inhabit it.'
You should also know that those of us who dare to suggest
to Republicans and Independents that there is a better way -- have been
threatened and harassed."
Mystic Chords of Memory
"It is my hope that we can organize this effort
with the sentiments expressed in the final paragraph of Lincoln's first
Inaugural address:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must
not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it, it must
not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching
from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and
hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of
the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better
angels of our nature.
That's it! We're all in this together! What a concept. On
Tuesday night in New York, Howard Dean was introduced by Lowell Weicker,
the legendary Republican-turned-Independent who taught everybody something
about Republican principles as the young hero of
the Watergate hearings:
"Republicans do not cover up. Republicans do not threaten.
Republicans do not commit illegal acts. And God knows that Republicans
do not view their fellow Americans as enemies to be harassed! But rather
I can assure you that this Republican and those whom I serve with look
upon every American as human beings to be loved and won." 1.2MB
CNN video clip (get QuickTime)
Apparently it now takes real courage
for
a Republican
to
base action
on principles.
Ask
informed Americans if they're willing to risk the personal wrath of Karl
Rove and most will decline the chance to stand up for their principles. It
doesn't
occur to practical people to ponder the real problem:
Anger an advisor
to the President or his Attorney General and any American is in actual
peril. How did that become part of the American experience?
Howard Dean's early opposition to the Iraq War seemed
courageous at the time but now looks like prescience. I'm sure Michael Cudahy
is proud of his own courage but intends to attract enough others that his
valor will also be transmuted into good sense. I'm convinced that the
country
is full of high-principled Republicans who will join him when called upon.
If you know one, send them to Michael Cudahy's Statement.
Circle the Welcome Wagons
If the Dean campaign wants to attract the radical
center, as Cudahy calls the most of us, it has no greater opportunity than
to embrace as many Republicans as possible, as fast as it can, using any
means available. That requires profound cluefulness about how to make
Republicans comfortable with a Democratic campaign.
Each of us has certain forms of etiquette which
we expect and without which we feel dislocated. Among Democrats it's tie-dyed
shirts, women in comfortable shoes and 20 splinter-movement signs at every
rally. Among mainstream Republicans, it includes a solid career, good grooming
and
a respect for the chain of command. Superficial profiling? Perhaps. But it's
a legitimate part of the complex calculus of managing a movement rather
than a campaign.
It just never occurred to the Dems that the Rainbow Coalition
might include people with shined shoes. This might be the party's real test
of its diversity.
Whether you're an idealist nurturing a campaign into a movement, or a cynical
operative coldly calculating electoral votes,
you'd jump at the chance to build a Republican Safe House. You might even
find a guy with proven principles and courage to run it.
4:52:22 PM 
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