From another, better time
By John Marshall
Four years ago, Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum appeared at a special forum in Lawrence to discuss, and at times lament, the state of politics in America. It was the last time I saw them together, and although they were long retired they reminded me instantly how the unalloyed debates of their time had accelerated the suspense in an election – its promise, a glint of hope at the edges.
Today, most campaigns have all the virtue of a cage fight.
The Dole-Kassebaum event, at KU’s Dole Institute of Politics, was high voltage, two Republicans of an era when the American political process actually lead to something worthwhile.
Dole and Kassebaum, with more than 45 years of combined service in the U.S. Senate, are from a time when Washington worked, and often well. Kassebaum, now 88, is the daughter of former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon (the Republican presidential nominee in 1936) and served in the Senate from 1978 through 1996. She had been married to the late Howard Baker, a distinguished senator from Tennessee and former White House Chief of Staff for President Reagan. Kassebaum, among other major accomplishments, was the first woman to represent Kansas in the Senate, and the first woman to chair a U.S. Senate committee (Labor).
Dole, 96, served eight years in the U.S. House and was elected to the Senate in 1968. He served 27 years in the Senate (1969-96) and was Republican leader for more than 20 years, twice as majority leader (1985-87 and 1995-96) when the party had more than 50 of the Senate’s 100 members. He left the Senate in 1996 to become the Republican nominee for president.
Dole’s appeal to citizens and legislators and his commitment to service stretched over the nation and much of the globe. For the same reasons he appealed to Kansans he appealed to others, and we had to share him.
Dole and Kassebaum were a complement to each other, he more conservative, she the moderate, the most popular pair to represent Kansas in Washington and elsewhere. They hold a passion for their home state, for their political party, for the government that they long served.
In Lawrence that day they shared a deep sorrow for the crude and selfish politics that has depleted governing and decimated government. Kassebaum could barely contain her contempt for Donald Trump, his bald ignorance, his mockery of decency and grace, his savage penchant for self-promotion and the lies that are its footing.
Dole was at the time guarded. He recited a considerable list of Trump’s shortcomings, among them his cynical pandering, his audacity and smugness, his unabashed affection for Vladimir Putin. But out of party loyalty, Dole said at the time that he yet supported Trump.
But what drew the overflow crowd on that muggy September afternoon was not discourse on contemporary American political failure, but a longing to see and hear, perhaps for one last time, two leaders who respected the complexities of democracy and took them seriously.
“Kansas sent us to Washington to do a job, not call each other names,” Dole said of his time in public service. What took hold that day, as they talked, was the respect that they inspired, the reason we voted at all. Dole and Kassebaum were driven by principle, not motive. Their mission was to improve lives, not control them. When their politics did not fall in line with ours, we were at least confident of their strong character and acumen. Their kind of Republicanism inspired even their adversaries; Democrats would produce their own celebrated Kansans, including Bill Roy, the Dockings, Dan Glickman, John Carlin, Kathleen Sebelius.
In early 2018, Bob Dole was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, a ceremony that presented a chilling contrast – a renowned leader evincing an institution he once led with a keen pride, against a Senate now divergent, shriveled, incapacitated.
Candidates or office holders who defy the politics of special interests for the public interest are people of courage. Today they would be condemned as elitists, or traitors – Bob Dole the conservative and George McGovern the liberal working for food stamps; Nancy Kassebaum and Ted Kennedy for labor reforms. Kennedy and Dole for the Americans with Disabilities Act, and for the Martin Luther King holiday. These and more are the profiles in purpose that gave our nation lift, helped citizens to ascend, to have better lives.
For a moment four years ago, we enjoyed the inspiration that once moved us to participate in government, to vote, to select those with good judgment. And we had them, once, people committed to the common cause over the special interest. Here was the stimulus for all those votes for Kassebaum and Dole. We miss it, and them, terribly.
*** *** *** ***
