John McCain, the Gray Champion

The Republican Party is not dividing. It is shedding an old skin to find a new life. This is the oldest creation myth: Krishna abandons his old body to bring in the new “dance of life and death.” The Beatles declare their old selves dead and rise like butterflies from a cocoon to new creativity in Sgt. Peppers. The Democrats had a similar experience in the early 1960s; a “new frontier.” They intentionally turned their back on the old as Eleanor Roosevelt and the elders turned their back on them. “The New Deal and the Fair Deal were bold measures for their generations,” Jack Kennedy told the crowd at the Los Angeles Coliseum at his nomination, “but this is a new generation.”

The Republican Party is about to undergo a similar new awakening and transformation.

In their most perceptive book, The Fourth Turning, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe make the point that at the end of 80 years political cultures die and new political ages are born. This new age is presaged by a Gray Champion, a singular, aging war veteran who stands firm again oppression while the others vacillate, posture and caucus. It is a reference to a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne written in 1837. John McCain is that man.

This past year has brought a sea change in the Republican Party. It began before the election of Obama. It began in October 2008, when a sudden surge of identity and character brought calls in 10-to-1 to Congress in turning back a bailout of Wall Street being brought to us by the same team of managers who brought us Iraq and Katrina. And it has not relented.

It will continue this year, and Democrats will rise in imitation. They already have. As The Wall Street Journal points out today, in Montana, Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer this week ordered a 5 percent across-the-board cut in state agency spending.

For the Democrats, this is too late and not enough. But they will be playing catch-up and it might as well start with Schweitzer, because the heartland has cat scratch fever now and is rising to its own occasion. Those not on board will be left behind.

In fact, John McCain started this new age of politics when he picked Sarah Palin for his running mate at the Republican convention of 2008.

Visit Mr. Quigley’s website at http://quigleyblog.blogspot.com.