Messitte: A Republican return to Ripon

Mutton-chopped Alvan Bovay was a faithful member of the Whig Party who moved to Ripon from New York in 1850. He was a mover and a shaker. He helped start the college of which I am the 13th president. And he also founded a new national political party at the little white schoolhouse just around the corner from my office. He and his neighbors called it the Republican Party, and it has thrived the past 162 years.

Bovay had good reasons for wanting to establish a new party in those difficult antebellum years, and his political foresight offers a lesson for today’s Grand Old Party. Badly swamped by the Democrat Franklin Pierce in the election of 1852, Bovay thought the Whigs had lost their sense of political direction and their connection to the most important issues of the day, in particular the growing opposition in the North to slavery.

It doesn’t take a historian or political scientist to see that the time for a modern day Bovay to emerge is overdue. And win, lose, (or even barely lose) on election day, the Republican Party and its Wisconsin-dominated leadership should return to its roots and redefine what they stand for in the 21st century.

It starts at the national level. Losers of the popular vote in five out of the last six elections, Republican Party faithful should be afraid of the trends. Of the top 15 states with the largest economies, the Democrats are poised to carry (again) at least 12 of them and could run the table if, improbably, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas go blue. The Republicans haven’t seriously contested California, New York and Illinois for almost a generation. And polls show that Donald Trump’s rank-and-file supporters skew older, whiter and more male. They are also generally less educated. Not a good way to build for the future.

But there are rays of prospective hope for those in the center of the political spectrum — Democrats and Republicans — who are having a hard time getting behind Trump or Hillary Clinton. The most courageous spot in the American political landscape right now is the ideological middle. And the first party that finds the equilibrium may own the future. There is an opening for a rebirth of the Republican Party, and it will start right after the November election.

Finding a radically moderate middle means leaving behind a portion of the current Republican base and perhaps suffering some initial electoral setbacks. The birthers, deporters and wall builders that troll Internet sites and chant “lock her up” or wear T-shirts that say, “Trump that Bitch!” need to go their own way. There should be no place for them in a sensible centrist party. The traditional Republican big tent should ditch the angry alt-right and look instead to build with disaffected Democrats.

So what does the political middle look like right now? It wants government to work more efficiently but without denigrating the good things Americans derive from public service. It’s for lower taxes on the middle class, but against corporate welfare and goodies for the top 1%. It’s for being more thoughtful about trade deals and gaming out the long-term consequences on American workers. It’s for the law of the land on gay marriage, Roe vs. Wade and the rights of women in the workplace. It’s for a common sense and humane immigration policy and a reasoned foreign policy that takes appropriate military and diplomatic risks, but with an understanding that America cannot solve all the world’s problems alone. Ultimately, it also should be for messengers at the top of the ticket who listen carefully, study the issues, admit when they make mistakes and surround themselves with the very best and the brightest to advise on the myriad issues that they may know very little about.

Alvan Bovay’s first Republican nominee for president in 1856, John C. Fremont of California, got trounced, although he did carry Wisconsin’s five electoral votes. But four years later, the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln and his leadership transformed the country.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Republican National Chairman Reince Preibus: Please take note of how it all began at the birthplace of the Republican Party. Your November invitation to return to Ripon will soon be in the mail.

Zach Messitte is president of Ripon College and a professor of politics and government.