They are there, waiting for the political leader who will grasp them and point the way to a recovery of our true greatness. But his victory may prove hollow if the real divisions afflicting the nation erupt elsewhere in the body politic, as is likely to happen. Clinton's Inaugural Address was mediocre, the symbolism flat, compared to the great inaugural speeches of Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy and Reagan. It will take something more than economic determinism to awaken this party from its complacency and drift. That something is called leadership, and it can come only from within the ranks, not from outside.
Leadership means direction, and direction requires purpose.
At this moment, the Republican party doesn't have one, other than the desire to avoid another budget fiasco. The man who summons the Republican party to a higher purpose, as Lincoln did in championing the exclusion of slavery from new states and territories, will become its leader. And he will have a fair chance of becoming the next president-even without a stock market crash. Heatherly is Executive Vice President of the Claremont Institute, and a former policy official of the U.S. Department of Education and the Small Business Administration. Return to top.