Even Chelsea Clinton recognizes the intrinsic value of the elephant – a fact lost on Republican strategists, the political establishment, and even the GOP itself.  The recent birth of her first child, Charlotte, is “scooped” in the current issue of People Magazine.  In the opening paragraph it is revealed that not only is Charlotte’s nursery swathed in elephants but Chelsea has “collaborated with an Oxford pal on a line of pachyderm products to help fund elephant conservation.”  Might the new mom be a closet Conservative and have a bright future as a Republican strategist?

To those unaware, the emblem of the Republican Party is an elephant.  While confessing ignorance of the historical meaning – if any – of the GOP’s selection of this particular party animal, I like to think of the elephant as symbolic of the Founders’ memory.  For whatever reason an elephant is know for its memory, captured in the saying “he/she has the memory of an elephant”.  The Republican Party was established in 1856 and organized around the universal, political principles of the Declaration of Independence.  Lincoln was the first president elected from the new party on the eve of the Civil War.  Claiming the mantle of America’s Founding Fathers for the Republican Party, Lincoln employed original research on the anti-slavery views of “our fathers” and cast himself as a conservative.  It was the work of Lincoln and his Republican Party to recall Americans to the Founders’ model of self-government grounded in the transcendent moral principle of “liberty to all”.

The essence of Conservatism is the belief in the constitutionally-defined role of government embraced in the American founding.  Chelsea Clinton’s conservation work recognizes the elephant as worthy of saving – as are our founding principles.  This uniquely qualifies her as a possible future Republican strategist and unlikely closet conservative.