We are a world riven by schisms. The Sunni faction is in revolt against the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government. Hezbollah is in revolt against the ruling government in Lebanon. Hamas is in revolt against the Israeli government control of Palestinian territory.
And, closest to home, the Realists are in revolt against the NeoConservatives over Iraq policy.
Last week we lost one of the sharpest minds that could have guided us through these rocky shoals. Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan's first US Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the first woman to serve in that post, passed away late Thursday night.
A great diplomatic and strategic voice has been silenced.
I had the good fortune to study under Dr. Kirkpatrick during my doctoral work at Georgetown. She taught us to view world leaders through the lens of philosophy. Drawing lessons from Plato and Aristotle, she showed us how constitutions interact with character. That is, she argued, the character of great men within a society interacts with the constitution of that society to create the reality of the state.
So we needed to judge countries not just by their legal charter (or lack thereof), she held, but by the quality of leaders that system produced.
How does one judge the quality of a leader, in her book?
First, quoting political theorist and mentor Harold Lasswell, she told us, "we know a man by what he loves." The same is true of women. And Jeane Kirkpatrick loved freedom and democracy. She despised dictators and strongmen. She held out hope for the triumph of democratic governments over those of tyrannical despots.
Second, she said, we need to judge leaders' character by their heroes. And Jeane Kirkpatrick's hero was Ronald Reagan. Dr. Kirkpatrick remarked in a 1981 speech,
Third, she taught us, leaders should be measured by their skills and strategies. And Jeane Kirkpatrick's skill was incisiveness. Her hectoring of her own Democratic party at the 1984 GOP Convention still rings true today, quoting Harry Truman:
"'The elements of our strength are many. They include our democratic government, our economic system, our great natural resources. But, the basic source of our strength is spiritual. We believe in the dignity of man.'
"That's the way Democratic presidents and presidential candidates used to talk about America.
"These were the men who developed NATO, who developed the Marshall Plan, who devised the Alliance for Progress.
"They were not afraid to be resolute nor ashamed to speak of America as a great nation. They didn't doubt that we must be strong enough to protect ourselves and to help others.
"They didn't imagine that America should depend for its very survival on the promises of its adversaries.
"They happily assumed the responsibilities of freedom.
San Francisco Democrats? The reference - which she used throughout the speech - was to the 1984 Convention in that city, which she noted the New York Times itself called "a distinct shift from the policies" of Truman, Kennedy and Johnson. But certainly it echoes eerily today.
The San Francisco Democrats, she said in perhaps her most famous phrase, "always blame America first."
Her toughness in confronting defeatism at home and abroad brought her a legendary stature within the Reagan Administration - a stature so great that she considered running for president in 1988. Her incisiveness, her toughness, her candor: these were her skills, and fighting against defeatism was her strategy.
Finally, Dr. Kirkpatrick taught us, we should measure leaders by the "collective" with which they identify. What group do they most call their own?
And Jeane Kirkpatrick, a lifelong Democrat, associated herself most with the pro-America wing of the American political system: those who believe that fighting for freedom, democracy, and our way of life is nothing to be ashamed about. Republican or Democrat, she was a part of the group that unabashedly stood for victory over the forces of evil in the world.
Defined by her own system, we come to know a Jeane Kirkpatrick that we need at our side as we make the tough decisions that confront us today.
So, to borrow a phrase, What Would Jeane Do, today, with the world in tumult?
Unfortunately, we will never know. A guiding light has gone out on the shores of freedom.
