After the deluge: Rick Perry in New Hampshire

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) spoke at Dartmouth College to a student gathering last night and suggested the age rising would be North American: A union of Mexico, America and Canada held together and advanced by immense indigenous energy resources. Not long ago, retired Army Gen. David Petraeus made a similar appraisal. Possibly these two will find their way together toward 2016. Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (Mass.) considered Petraeus for a running mate in 2012, it was said, and historic periods do generally end (and begin again) with a successful military figure (Jefferson/Washington, Lincoln/Grant, Roosevelt/Eisenhower). Petraeus would be the natural choice in this hypothesis to amend a conservative ticket.

{mosads}Perry started with the benign comment: “Tuesday was an interesting night.” He suggested that there may be a chance for a Republican president in 2016, but made no attempt to insinuate himself or anyone else into that formula. But he seemed fit, poised and ready to rumble, physically and intellectually, and his presence here in New Hampshire early in the season brings the suggestion.

What I found most interesting in last Tuesday’s vote was the empowerment of the states to conservative themes. Even blue Massachusetts and Illinois elected Republican governors and America today is red from coast to coast until it tends to blur around Fresno. This model was early suggested by Perry in his book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington, published in 2010. It might be considered an Eagle Scout’s guide to state and regional governance. Perry then in 2010, in 2012 and again last night cited from the first the importance of the 10th Amendment and used his trademark phrase about the states as “50 laboratories for democracy.” This past week, an important and definitive New York Times article on last Tuesday’s races used similar phrasing.

From the audience I asked the governor if the Tuesday election had any effect on 2016. What does 2016 look like now?

“The same as it did Monday,” he said playfully, avoiding any commitment.

But surely it does have a bearing. Romney seemed a good choice for conservatives until Tuesday. But the question after Tuesday is how far will the crimson tide rise? And will it travel now to the gates of Austin, Texas? Will it carry conservatives only to 2020, or like the Roosevelt and Kennedy periods, will it carry a century? The demographics suggest a major turning and the rise of a Western conservative sensibility. Here in this odd year of the blood moons, advanced by that iconic Texas preacher, Pastor John Hagee, we may well face an absolute shift in the political and cultural paradigm of America.

The press fears Perry and so did a handful of apparatchiks embedded in the crowd, come specifically to publicly embarrass Perry and sandbag his talk. Like the mockery of the establishment in academia and the press suggests, they, the public voice of the Eastern Establishment, are fully disoriented by the prospect of a Texan; a real life fifth-generation rancher from Paint Creek, about 60 miles north of Abilene.

But Perry’s chances of rising to the presidency in 2016 have significantly improved since Tuesday, compared to Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who were probably more representative figures of conservative America before Tuesday.

Today a new America is rising, has already risen, and is about to march on Washington. Of these four — Romney, Bush, Christie, Perry; all governors of important states — Perry speaks most directly to that new America which rises today out of the shadows and into the mainstream.

Quigley is a prize-winning writer who has worked more than 35 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and reviewer. For 20 years he has been an amateur farmer, raising Tunis sheep and organic vegetables. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and four children. Contact him at quigley1985@gmail.com.