In 1955, when jazz great Charlie Parker died, some of his most ardent fans refused to culturally believe it. They knew the man they called “Bird” would have a musical legacy that would live on far past 1955. They were right. So on many walls in Greenwich Village they wrote, “Bird Lives.”

Contrary to left wing pop culture, the 1950s was a dynamic time of cultural, scientific, and political drama. It was the 60s, its tone set early by those who envied the youth of spoiled brats and so acclaimed them as idealistic, that was the decade of drab conformity inside a Frankfurt School narrative.

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And one of the reasons the 1950s were prosperous was because of the president of the United States. For most of the decade that was Republican Dwight David Eisenhower. His type of balding old guy leadership, with its military high command experience and realism, allowed the nation to flourish. He wasn’t perfect, but his manner stands in stark positive contrast with the current occupant of the Oval Office. As we Republicans are looking for new leadership and fresh ideas, we should keep this phrase in mind: Ike Lives.

Every morning I used to walk into the Kansas Capitol during the years I worked there I saw a quote from Eisenhower: "The opportunist thinks of me and today. The statesman thinks of us and tomorrow." Thinking about that this week…

— Bryan Lowry (@BryanLowry3) January 9, 2021

What I mean is we, the Republican Party and the nation, need a pragmatic conservative party shorn of drama queen antics. We need a fiscally and national security conservative party that is to a great degree socially moderate. We need a party for reasonable people.

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I know, doesn’t sound very exciting. I can hear the true believers now: “What about —? The world will end if we don’t—!” No, it won’t. But if the screeching continues we’ll lose the support of anybody but the Trumpian baying at the mood crowd. Not a formula for national victory. And, haven’t we had enough of drama?

The last four years has been a junior high school production of Richard III, complete with an antihero with a Shakespearean flaw (like the original, ego) and with far too few appearances from the Earl of Richmond types.

We’ve lurched from unfair investigations to absurd impeachment. We’ve had great policy achievements coupled with political disasters. We’ve tolerated boorish behavior to support a man that we thought was fighting for us, but who we now realize was always fighting just because he enjoys fighting. Enough is enough. We need a break. We need an adult in the big chair. Mike Pence comes to mind. But anybody, anyone, whose main goal is not to shine their self-adorned halo will do nicely. Ike Lives.