At a time when America is turning inward and nationalism is on the rise, what can Americans learn from Senator Arthur Vandenberg?
The Grand Rapids republican passed away nearly 70 years ago, but a new book by Hank Meijer shines the light on Vandenberg once again.
WGVU spoke with Meijer who explains how Vandenberg’s openness to change and bipartisan compromise helped to make America a world power.
“Senator Vandenberg was among those people during the post war years who created what we think of as the world order; a combination of institutions and commitments and beliefs that have really given us, generally speaking, peace for 70 years. And that’s now sort of up for debate. People have taken that for granted and we’re seeing a resurgence of some of that notion that America is better off on its own. That we can turn our back on some of those beliefs and commitments that have helped maintain a peaceful world for the most part.”
Hank Meijer is author of the book Arthur Vandenberg: The Man in the Middle of the American Century, he explains how after World War II Senator Vandenberg converted from staunch isolationist to forging foreign policy expanding the nation’s role as a world power and leader.
“And that capacity to change I hope is the theme that comes through in the book. We often chide our leaders for being inconsistent. But what that really means is sometimes it means they’re flexible in the right ways. They can adapt as circumstances change rather than adhering so strictly to a certain belief that they’re blind to the needs of the present day or the future.”
I asked Meijer where readers should focus in the book?
“This was a flesh and blood guy. He was a politician but he also was a frustrated writer. He wrote short stories that were published in magazines when he was in his 20s that he couldn’t make a living that way. He had an affair that some people say both cost him his Presidential aspirations and may have influenced his thinking because she may have been an agent of the British Secret Service. These are intriguing sidelights on a colorful life. He was friends with a lot of people you never would have imagined he was friends with, not only politically, but in the arts and culture and that makes him a richer character than just a stick figure of a politician who changed his mind as important as that by itself is.”
Does that help someone navigate politics to its fullest engaging a large number of groups?
“I think it keeps us thinking more broadly. Today we struggle so much with a society where we can choose our own sources of information and we can choose our own particular clan or tribe that we associate with. And he recognized both as a newspaper man and then as a politician, that you had to climb out of that comfort zone and interact with others to really get things done for the long-term."
Patrick Center, WGVU News.