Eisenhower’s Presidency Offers a Model for Bringing the GOP Back to the Mainstream

Many conservatives in the GOP are disillusioned with the direction of the country under President Trump. They support the Republican Party and its values but are troubled by the party’s growing extremism.

Is there a path back toward mainstream politics in Republican affairs? President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s philosophy and governance may offer a way forward. There are lessons from Eisenhower’s presidency that suggest opportunities for reshaping the G.O.P.

This podcast examines two examples of Eisenhower’s effective leadership -- his pragmatism and his internationalism.

Transcript

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Recently, Kristen Saltis Anderson, a Republican pollster, reported that many conservatives in the GOP are disillusioned with the direction of the country under President Trump. Anderson calls these unhappy people normy Republicans. Her term seems to suggest the word normal, although the people in this group are having difficulty making their voices heard as normal Republicans. Most do not consider themselves part of the Magna movement, she points out. They think of themselves as supporters of the party and its values, rather than specifically as supporters of Trump. Many of the people Anderson describes appear to be moderate conservatives. They're uncomfortable with growing extremism in Republican ranks. They prefer center-right politics rather than radical right versions. Those disgruntled Republicans can find ideas about ways to lead the GOP back to the political mainstream by examining the history of their party in the 1950s. In those years, the GOP had a somewhat related problem of extremism. The most prominent leader of the militant right in those days was Ohio Senator Robert Taft. He was the intellectual leader of the party's so-called old guard. Taft was so prominent in GOP affairs that party members often referred to him as Mr. Republican. Who was he? Robert Taft was a steadfast, vocal opponent of the New Deal and a staunch non-interventionist in foreign policy. Robert Taft very much wanted to be president of the United States, and the situation looked good for him. But the Republican Party moved in a different direction in 1952. It chose a popular military figure as its nominee for president. Dwight D. Eisenhower, affectionately called Ike during the political campaign, won the election of 1952 handily. He remained popular throughout his eight years in the White House. President Eisenhower and his administration explicitly promoted the idea of modern republicanism. That was the way they described their governing style. Modern republicanism was supposedly a form of what they called dynamic conservatism, and another term they use was middle-of-the-road politics. The goal was to combine moderate social policies with conservative economic principles. In many respects, Eisenhower promoted what we might today call moderate conservatism. Currently, of course, moderate conservatives are hard to find in the Republican Party. Years ago, and especially in the years of Donald Trump's political influence, the party purged its moderates. They ridiculed them as rhinos, Republicans in name only. And that term delivered a hostile message. It essentially said, this is not a party for wimpy moderates that negotiate and sometimes compromise with the despised opponents, the Democrats. Is there a path back toward mainstream politics in Republican affairs? President Dwight D. Eisenhower's philosophy and governance may suggest some ways forward. Of course, there are limits to the applicability of Eisenhower's model to current politics. Conditions in the USA and the world in the 1950s were significantly different from those in the present. Furthermore, the GOP does not seem likely to embrace centrist reform in the immediate future. Nevertheless, some lessons from the Eisenhower presidency suggest opportunities for reshaping the GOP, perhaps in the long term, to better serve the interests of people, Kristen Saltis Anderson called Normy Republicans. Welcome to History is Relevant. I'm Robert Brent Topplin. Here's the plan. We'll examine two models of leadership from Eisenhower's presidency. First his pragmatism in domestic affairs, and secondly, his internationalism in global relationships. We'll briefly note how these qualities are in short supply in today's Republican Party. Part one, Eisenhower the Pragmatist. Arthur Larson, one of Eisenhower's key speechwriters, published a book in 1956 that explained this characteristic in detail. Larson praised the president's middle-of-the-road political leadership. In that book titled A Republican Looks at His Party, Larson characterized Eisenhower as a moderate leader that wanted to bring the Republican Party into the, what he said, would be the authentic American center. Larson said the GOP needed to abandon the reactionary, anti-New Deal stance of the 1930s to remain relevant. Eisenhower, he noted, created a balance between liberal Democrats and the GOP's conservative old guard. President Eisenhower promoted a form of moderate conservatism that accepted the necessity of established social programs of the New Deal while also favoring individual responsibility and state-level solutions to the nation's problems. We can see the attitudes and practices Larson described in the record of Eisenhower's presidency. President Eisenhower acted in ways that pleased pro-business conservatives. He was comfortable around wealthy corporate titans, and he filled his cabinet with many of them. Eisenhower favored small government and spending cuts to achieve balanced budgets. He wanted to decrease federal intervention in business affairs, and he supported the containment of communism, and he continued programs that began in the Truman administration. Eisenhower's administration fired hundreds of federal employees under an expanded loyalty security program. Dwight D. Eisenhower was conservative, but not a radical one. He ran for president in part to counter the influence of the old guard, that staunchly conservative group of Republicans that wanted to roll back the reforms of the Roosevelt New Deal. Eisenhower's reaction to the ideas of Robert Taft and others in the party came out forcefully in a comment he made to his brother Edgar. Eisenhower said, should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear from that party again in our political history. Eisenhower was pragmatic about changes created by the New Deal, and he supported expansion of Social Security benefits. He actively expanded Social Security in 1954 to cover an additional ten million workers, including farmers and domestic workers. At times Eisenhower surprised and pleased liberals. Even though he had been reluctant to pressure southern states to end segregation, Eisenhower acted swiftly when Governor Orville Fawbus of Arkansas resisted court orders to integrate Little Rock Central High School. Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and deployed U.S. Army soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. The president's intervention helped nine African American students attend Little Rock Central High School. Even though Eisenhower wanted to limit the federal government's reach in American life, he was strongly supportive of the nation's biggest government-sponsored infrastructure project of the post-World War II period. The Interstate Highway System was officially named after Eisenhower because of the president's important role supporting legislation that funded that huge project. President Eisenhower had a long-term interest in developing modern highways. After World War I, he led an army convoy across the USA that moved slowly and with great difficulty because of the nation's horrible roads. Eisenhower was also impressed during the time he was a supreme allied commander in Europe when he saw the Audubon Highway network in Germany. Presently, the GOP seems far removed from the kind of moderately conservative, pragmatic party that is committed to mainstream politics. It has become intensely partisan. Trump especially promotes suspicion and division. He speaks contemptuously of Democrats and demands loyalty within the GOP. He does not hesitate to primary, a word that has become a verb, to primary Republican legislators that question his policies. Donald Trump acts like he doesn't understand the ideal role of America's chief executive, one that Eisenhower certainly recognized. After winning an election, a president is expected to serve all Americans. He is not supposed to work primarily as a militant champion of his party's interests. And he's not supposed to treat members of the political opposition as contemptible enemies. A return to Eisenhower's pragmatic model of leadership could well serve both Republicans specifically and the American people generally. Part two, Eisenhower the Internationalist. This was an important perspective in the years of his presidency because some prominent Republicans in Congress were suspicious of alliances with foreign countries. Among the militants was Congressman John Bricker of Ohio. He promoted an amendment that sought to limit the president's ability to enter into binding international agreements. And of course, Senator Robert Taft of Ohio was the leading voice of the GOP's group that opposed the formation of NATO. Taft favored a Fortress America theory of defense that somewhat resembled the America first outlook that Donald Trump promoted when he campaigned for president. Eisenhower understood the importance of America's post-war status as leader of the free world. He had considerable personal experience working abroad with political and military leaders. And of course, he recognized the importance of U.S. relations with European nations. He was NATO's first supreme allied commander. Eisenhower organized NATO's command structure and fostered military cooperation between the nations of Europe. Dwight D. Eisenhower had an expansive vision of America's role and responsibilities in global affairs. Donald Trump's leadership in international affairs has been strikingly different. Trump's actions and words alienated allies and undermined America's role as a respected and influential global leader. The GOP needs renewed commitments to internationalism, an idea that Dwight D. Eisenhower endorsed vigorously. One of President Eisenhower's most important early achievements related to the Korean War. He pledged, I shall go to Korea to end the war, as he promised, and he visited the region in December 1952, shortly after winning the election. An armistice came to fruition a few months into Eisenhower's presidency. That had enormous consequences. It opened opportunities for reducing inflation. It strengthened the U.S. economy and enabled a balancing of the federal budget. That balance seems an elusive goal in our times. It's notable that the United States, under Eisenhower's presidency, balanced the budget three times in 1956, 1957, and 1960. It would be useful for current GOP leaders to consider lessons from the conclusion of that conflict, the Korean War, and its impact in American life in the 1950s. In recent decades, leaders in the Republican Party led the USA into military interventions that now appear grossly mistaken. Lengthy wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Another painful mistake may be in the making. Most GOP leaders were supportive or silent while President Donald Trump led the nation into a quagmire in Iran. Eisenhower's model of promoting peaceful resolution of a conflict that was costly in blood and treasure is worthy of consideration in our time. The point here is not to hold up the Eisenhower presidency as a perfect example of national and international leadership. If we were doing a more extensive analysis of the Eisenhower years, we would include attention to controversies and shortcomings in Eisenhower's outlook, actions, and policies. But we can conclude by identifying two notable takeaways from that complex historical record. Examples that are worthy of emulation. America and the world could have a better future if the Republican Party embraced the spirit of pragmatism and internationalism that Eisenhower exhibited. If normally Republicans truly admire that approach to governance, they should muster the courage to express their opinion loudly and boldly.