The GOP Needs To Listen To THIS Hoover

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Many conservative pundits thought the future hope of the GOP would be realized in the “Ronald Reagan in high heels,” as they called Sarah Palin. But maybe it actually will emerge from a smart, sassy descendant of Herbert Hoover.

Margaret Hoover, author of the recently published American Individualism, argues that Republicans can win over both youth and the presidency by learning from the legacy of her great-grandfather, President Herbert Hoover.

The Hoover she urges Republicans to rediscover, however, is not the Hoover who had the bad luck to be hit by the Great Depression. It is the Hoover who - up to 1929 - was regarded as one of the greatest and most successful American leaders of the 20th century.

“He was globally oriented, a technologist, believed government could be a force for good, deeply valued volunteerism and pragmatism in his politics - all values the millennials embrace," Margaret Hoover said in an interview with FrumForum. After his presidency, Hoover discovered a later life career as a champion of individualism and liberty (Margaret Hoover's own book title recycles the title of a famous piece by Herbert Hoover published in 1922) - and also as a great reformer and rationalizer of government through the two commissions he led for his friend, President Harry Truman.

When speaking with FF, Hoover discussed what she sees as the pivotal rifts between the GOP and the millenials: “In '04 millennials first broke with Republicans over their discontent with the Iraq War... The failures of the federal government during Hurricane Katrina in ’05, [and] Congressional ethics and sex scandals in ’06 all contributed to Republican brand damage.   I think by ’08 they were voting against Republicans as much as they were voting for Obama.”

However, Hoover said that “if [Republicans emphasize] a positive alternative, pro-growth economic agenda that focuses on creating jobs (37% of millennials are unemployed or underemployed) rather than demonizing 'Obama’s economy,' and…deemphasize social issues…we have a fair shot at winning millennials back.”

The de-emphasis on social conservatism in the party gets generous airtime in American Individualism, especially on the issue of gay marriage. “The marriage agenda [is] a symbol to me,” Hoover said.  “I want there to be diversity of views on social issues in the party.  Diversity is good- but a small group of social conservatives wants to eliminate diversity in the party on a few key issues.”

Hoover suggests that the leader of this new kind of Republicanism needs to be someone “convincing and fresh.”  Yet at the same time, the eternal verities of Republicanism as championed by her great-grandfather remain as applicable as ever.

“There is a direct line between Hoover's ‘Rugged Individualism’ speech and Tea Party sentiments today,” she said. “[President Hoover] saw the choice between the Republican and Democratic parties as a ‘choice between the American system of Rugged Individualism and a European philosophy of diametrically opposed doctrines--doctrines of paternalism and state socialism… Every step of bureaucratizing of the business of our country poisons the very roots of liberalism--political equality, free speech, free assembly, free press and equality of opportunity.  It’s not the road to more liberty, but to less liberty.’”