A Mid-Life Crisis

The re-election last November of Republican “liberals” Chuck Percy and Jim Thompson in Illinois and the victories of Rudy Boschwitz and David Durenberger in Minnesota, Bill Cohen in Maine, Nancy Landon Kassebaum in Kansas, and Dick Thornburgh in Pennsylvania add up to a rather strong showing for the wing of the party whose political obituary has been written more times than one cares to count.

That these Republicans ran (for the most part) on “conservative issues” can be put down, by those so inclined, to cynicism—perhaps with some justification. But the fact is, the Ripon Society has been undergoing something of a mid-life crisis in recent months. That hotbed of GOP liberalism just isn’t what it used to be.

About the Author

Alan Pell Crawford

Mr. Crawford is the author of Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson.

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The re-election last November of Republican “liberals” Chuck Percy and Jim Thompson in Illinois and the victories of Rudy Boschwitz and David Durenberger in Minnesota, Bill Cohen in Maine, Nancy Landon Kassebaum in Kansas, and Dick Thornburgh in Pennsylvania add up to a rather strong showing for the wing of the party whose political obituary has been written more times than one cares to count.

That these Republicans ran (for the most part) on “conservative issues” can be put down, by those so inclined, to cynicism—perhaps with some justification. But the fact is, the Ripon Society has been undergoing something of a mid-life crisis in recent months. That hotbed of GOP liberalism just isn’t what it used to be.