America’s Senator: Michigan's Arthur H. Vandenberg

On December 8, 2011, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor will present highlights of a new documentary film examining the life of former Michigan U.S. Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg.

Presenters include:

• Writer/producer Mike Grass 
• Gleaves Whitney, Director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies 
• Hank Meijer, CEO and co-chairman of Michigan-based Meijer Inc. 

Meijer is also the author of an upcoming biography of Senator Vandenberg. Meijer has written a short article on the late Vandenberg in Dome magazine, America’s Senator and the Art of Compromise.

In that article, Meijer compares the post World War II era of bipartisan foreign policy with the lack of the same in present-day Washington, DC. In Meijer's own words...

Whenever partisans in Washington lead their factions - and thus our government - into dysfunction, some lonely pundit will wonder aloud where to find the Arthur Vandenberg of today. Vandenberg was the Republican senator whose collaboration - in the highest, best sense of that term - with Democrats in the late 1940s resulted in the noblest foreign policy achievements in American history.

Meijer notes that Vandenberg’s early career was marked by hostility to foreign entanglements. "In the late 1940s, Vandenberg had enough credibility with his Republican colleagues to deliver votes when he and the administration agreed," said Meijer.

Meijer contrasts that with the current stalemate in finding a bipartisan bargain on the Federal budget. Meijer asks, "Is there a Republican leader today who can deliver the votes for a legitimate compromise?"

Meijer says...

Just as important, that congressional Vandenberg of today also has to have someone with whom to negotiate. He or she needs a partner in the White House who can defy core elements of his own party.

The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library presentation of America's Senator: The Unexpected Odyssey of Arthur H. Vandenberg will be on Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in Ann Arbor. Click here for more information.