The President Moves in to Reshape the G.O.P.
The moment Dwight Eisenhower strode into the Congres sional Room of Washington's Statler Hotel last week, the members of the Republican National Committee could sense the change in him. When it came to political meetings, Ike had always been a notorious foot-dragger. This time, ready and willing to address the committee's mid-term session, he was obviously a man with a message. Moments later, he took the rostrum to deliver a dart-sharp speech calling for a complete overhaul and rejuvenation of the Republican Party, from precinct captain to panjandrum.
"My political experience is short." said Ike with a quick grin, "but I think most of you would agree it has also been quite intense. I know that underlying every political purpose —every political aspiration and hope — must be work at the pre cinct level. We must reach the individual. We must convey to him — and to America — the ideals by which we live. . . .
"Next, on top of that kind of work, we must have good can didates . . . As I see the Republican Party, we have such a wealth of brains, of ability combined with personality, that it is a tragedy in any locality for any of us to push into nomination — from alderman up — someone who doesn't represent the ideals and purposes in which we all believe." He took time out — "so that our balance of values does not get out of order" — to note that Communists and not Demo crats were the principal enemy. "Let's not build up a picture that the worst enemy anyone can have is a Democrat. Far from it; we just don't think they can do as good a job as we, do." But midway in his speech, it was clear that Ike has abandoned his famed middle-of-the-road position. ("Too static," explained the White House.) He had toyed, he said, with the idea of calling his kind of Republicanism "progressive moderate." But now he thought that "dynamic conservatism" was the best term: "We are not antediluvian, nor are we trying to be men from Mars." Bedrock Conclusions. When he had finished, the national committeemen pounded the tables in delight. Whispered one committeeman to his neighbor: "Why. that's the first real honest-to-goodness Republican political speech I've heard him make." But the committeemen hadn't heard anything yet: Ike's speech was merely the first public outcropping of some bedrock conclusions that he has reached about politics. Items :
¶ The 1954 congressional election was a vindication of Eisen hower policies, a rebuke to the G.O.P. Old Guard, and a man date for him to follow his own political instincts.
¶ The Republican Party stands in danger of defeat and extinction if it does not attract more people by becoming more dynamic.
¶ The success or failure of the Eisenhower Administration will have a substantial effect on whether the party survives or dies.
¶ He will no longer try to compromise with the "McCormick wing" of the party.
¶ With the Democrats in control of Congress, he is in a fine position to fight the Old Guard Republicans, i.e., if his program is defeated, the blame will be laid to the Democrats and not to G.O.P. intraparty strife.