Predictably, the Society warned that the party "must unequivocally disassociate itself from the John Birch Society, the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups." And equally predictably, the Society had to pay homage one sentence later to the fact that the Republican party is still the party of conservatives: "At the same time all Republican spokesmen would do well to distinguish clearly and publicly between irrational and irresponsible extremist elements and the millions of radonal, responsible and traditional conservatives who comprise a large segment of Republican voting strength."

The report estimated that "at least 67 Congressional seats now held by Democrats can be won by able and vigorous Republican candidates in 1966" and recommended that "the National Committee research staff should maintain a complete dossier on the voting record and public statements of each Democratic incumbent in a marginal District, for delivery to the Republican candidate upon his selection."

Politics vs. Ideas

For the last 18 months, the Society's emphasis has clearly been on practical politics. Yet, when founded in December of 1962, the emphasis was supposed to be on ideas--ideas for a party without ideas. It had modelled itself after the Bow Group, the successful, though unofficial, research group of Britain's Conservative Party. The first thing it did was to meet with professors, not politicians. Otto Eckstein (now of the President's Council of Economic Advisors), Edward Banfield, and Henry Kissinger were three who talked to the group.

But the political choas of 1964 has diverted the Society from the one unique thing it can give the Party--ideas. Undoubtedly it will be difficult to resist the fascination of practical politics. And the difficulty of finding new ideas that can be transformed into political rewards will further discourage them.

The Vision

When they dream, Ripon members like to think of themselves as heirs of Kennedy, not Eisenhower. "We in the Ripon Society," they say at the end of Election '64, "and young Americans generally, remember these words of a young President: 'Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans ...' Today that torch burns only at an Arlington grave, for today no man and no Party carries the torch of our general." This is the Ripon vision--"the great opportunity of a new Republican party"--that the GOP will pick up the torch.

But another quote, from Walter Lippmann, strikes closer to the truth: "Ever since Wilson and Roosevelt, the central Republican leadership has been alienated from the intellectual community, and in the years when it backed McCarthy, it in effect declared war on the intellectual community . . . This alienation is the root of the decline of the Republican Party."

And as this is the root, the real measure of the Ripon Society's success will be its ability to end-this alienation