Yet, in many ways, the literal muzzling of Ann Coulter may not necessarily be such a bad thing for the conservative movement. Especially now that the Republican Party is at a crossroads after the cataclysm of Nov. 4, a few Coulter-less months will be helpful to both parties as they begin the process of determining where to go from here. Closer to home, though, I'd like to suggest that Princeton can play a unique role in the retooling of the Republican Party in the aftermath of the election, specifically by ensuring that the underlying ideology of the conservative movement and, consequently, of the Republican Party is sound and defensible going forward. The role Princeton can fulfill will be one of ideological scrutiny and intellectual mediation.
To a large extent, the 2008 campaign season represented a firm departure from political intellectualism. Nowhere was this more evident than in the "Joe the Plumber" mantra that the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign embraced in the last few weeks of the election season in a desperate attempt to regain some of Barack Obama's seemingly unassailable ground. Wilson School lecturer Mickey Edwards, a former Republican Congressman and chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, told me that the messages of McCain and Palin's campaign constituted a real rejection of intellectualism. Edwards thinks that the accusation that Obama somehow didn't (and doesn't) understand the plight of average Americans because of his Ivy League education represents this well.
To me, ideology and intellectualism are, and should be, as important to American political parties as they are to Princeton. Edwards remarked that he sees the Constitution as the guiding principle of the Republican Party. "We used to be the party of the Constitution; not the party of no government, but the party of limited government - government limited by the ideas of our Founding Fathers." He views current Republican politics as beholden to a focus on wining rather than to a duty to service. To carry his analysis one step further with my own, intellectual ideology provides for a much more stable, less contentious political system than does a rebellion against academia. Basing movements on logical intellectual principles helps reduce partisan bickering.
With that in mind, Princeton can play a unique role in ensuring that the ideology of conservatism and of the Republican Party is strong going forward. Princeton is uniquely situated geographically - often known as the "northernmost of the Southern schools" - and yet still, according to a pre-election Nassau Research Poll, more than two-thirds liberal. What's more, Princeton has a vested interest in preventing another backlash against the Ivy League and intellectualism generally. Since the campaign run by the Republican Party was so overtly anti-intellectual, and since a return to intellectualism is badly needed, Princeton has a golden opportunity. The University should allow intellectualism to have its day and convene a week-long conference featuring some of the biggest names in conservatism, with the goal of hammering out some sort of mission statement directing the Republican Party going forward. The need emerges for a nonpartisan, neutral mediator to reconcile the disparate views about the Republican Party (since politics professor Robert George's social conservatism may at times clash with Bill Kristol's neoconservative view). Princeton can be that mediator.
Many Democrats will view that suggestion as heresy. But politics is cyclical, and there is little doubt that the conservative movement will be back. Much as George McGovern's landslide defeat in 1972 failed to crush the Democratic Party permanently, 2008 will not spell doom for the Republicans. Ensuring that the post-2008 Republican party is based on strong intellectualism will pay dividends for everyone both now and when the political pendulum swings the other way. Let's get moving before Ann Coulter regains her voice.
Charlie Metzger is a freshman from Palm Beach, Fla. He can be reached at cmetzger@princeton.edu.
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