By Andy Smarick
Sunday, April 05, 2026
Two remarkably talented, independent-minded,
service-oriented conservatives are in knock-down, drag-out fights with cancer.
They’ve been models of courage and good cheer in their battles, but they were
also models of American republican virtue in their professional lives. Our
nation must find ways to identify and elevate more people like them instead of
the hot-tempered, partisan commentators who now dominate the public square yet
never serve in public capacities.
Beyond their dire diagnoses in middle age (and
willingness to discuss their struggles in public), Ben Sasse and Karl Zinsmeister share a great deal.
Both had relatively brief but influential tenures at the pinnacle of the
federal government: Sasse as a U.S. senator, Zinsmeister as the top domestic
policy adviser in President George W. Bush’s second term.
Both are products of rural America, and neither lost his
rootsy sensibility. They worked like dogs, and though they always seemed
honored to serve their nation, they gave the impression that Washington never
felt like home. Both are comfortable in their own skin, never putting on airs
or trying to be part of the club. Each has a social-entrepreneurial streak and
an unusually active intellectual life.
Had the GOP been led by more conservatives like Sasse and
Zinsmeister over the last generation, we would’ve been quicker to catch and
address populist rumblings. If more leaders like them were in charge of public
institutions today, we could trust that a conservative governing agenda would
be expertly executed. Instead, the right has been largely fueled by
anti-institutional activists and helmed by governing novices, meaning
conservatism of late has produced too much venting and too few meaningful policy
wins.
Sasse’s story is well known. Raised in Nebraska, the son of a wrestling and football coach, he detasseled corn in the summers. Ivy-educated and earnest,
he became a professor and worked in elite management consulting before serving
as president of a small, struggling college in his hometown. He delighted in
talking Husker football and sharing real-time updates of his daughter’s toiling on a cattle ranch. He’s the preternaturally
accomplished Midwestern everydude Mayor Pete is trying to become.
Sasse won a Senate seat in 2014, voted conservatively, and soon distinguished himself through his
work on the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees and willingness to buck President Trump. He wrote two books while in office
and left the Senate to become president of the University of Florida. Politics
and policy are not everything.
I worked for Zinsmeister at the White House domestic policy council. He was a shoe-leather
think-tanker, editor, and journalist by trade. He wanted to understand real
people doing real work. During my West Wing interview, he didn’t want to
talk about my philosophy or politics; he liked that I’d battled a recalcitrant school district for years while
helping start a charter school for disadvantaged kids. In his free time, he
rebuilt houses. He embedded with a combat unit during the war in Iraq and then wrote books and produced a documentary about it. A native of upstate New York, his
most passionate stories were about manual labor or getting lost on an off-trail
mountain hike. He is a boots-on-the-ground as well as a nose-in-the-books kind
of guy.
Though he was often the smartest one in the room, he had
the egalitarian good sense to never lust after a position in the White House
and to be skeptical of those who did. After leaving federal service, he didn’t
stick around Washington to become a lobbyist or cable news instigator. Instead, he was an
executive at a historic woodworking company and worked in philanthropy. In total, he’s written more than 20 books on
topics as varied as education, populism, food, and the family.
Our nation has an extraordinary ability to generate
people like Sasse and Zinsmeister. In towns you’ve never heard of, there are
terribly bright, high-energy, accomplished, patriotic Americans who love their
communities and are willing to serve their nation. They are not the lawyers and
technocrats who profit off Washington and never leave the confines of the Acela
corridor. They are not angry commentators or aspiring influencers who thrive on
social media melees without ever getting their hands dirty with real public
service.
Federal governing would be stronger — and America’s
public square would be healthier — if Washington’s top figures were sharp,
gritty, serious, experienced individuals doing short tours inside the Beltway.
Uncle Sam would better understand America, and America would better understand
Uncle Sam. Our national leaders should not be a different species than county,
city, or state leaders. They should just be our best who temporarily leave
their communities to lend a hand in Washington.
The phrase “republican virtue” has fallen out of vogue,
but it’s as important today as ever. We need people to think about the public
good instead of private gain; to work quietly in public capacities, not shout
for attention; to act in terms of duties instead of rights. Sasse and
Zinsmeister have done themselves and America proud. They are highly talented,
decent, patriotic citizens with full lives who dedicated a chapter to the
nation’s business and then returned to other honorable pursuits. May they find
strength and peace in their fights, and may we find more like them.
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