Finding the right person to push a few hundred Hillsdale College graduates out the door and into the real world is a daunting task. The things they’ve learned have equipped them to be the top picks in the job market, but high unemployment numbers persist among Hillsdale students.
They need to hear from someone who was once in their seats and succeeded, someone who epitomizes overcoming the difficulties of beginning a career.
Harry V. Jaffa, intellectual grandfather of Hillsdale College, deserves the job. Jaffa won’t be just another obscure scholar capable of regurgitating the college’s mission. He made the mission.
For the last century, Jaffa has been the world’s foremost authority on Abraham Lincoln. As a young man, Jaffa frequented used bookstores. He could never afford the books, so he would leave and pick up the next day where he’d left off. One day, he stumbled upon a copy of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and was immediately enthralled. He scrounged up enough money to buy the book, read it, and then read it again. After doing some research, he was shocked to find very little written on the debates. Since that fateful encounter, his scholarship has defined the statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln.
He also founded modern American conservatism. In the introduction to one of Jaffa’s essay collections, William F. Buckley Jr. wrote, “If you think Harry Jaffa is hard to argue with, try agreeing with him. It is nearly impossible. He studies the fine print in any agreement as if it were a trap, or a treaty with the Soviet Union.” He regularly quarreled with fellow political philosophers to define American conservatism. He pointed out the inseparable connection between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, perhaps his biggest contribution. Today, what conservative doesn’t see that link? College President Larry Arnn even recently wrote a book on the topic.
Speaking of our dear president, Jaffa has a special connection with Hillsdale College. Arnn didn’t just pop out of the womb as a genius, even if it seems like he did. Someone had to point him in the right direction, and that someone was Harry Jaffa. Arnn, master of the spontaneous Saga freshman seminar and interrogation, was probably tortured similarly by his mentor. Jaffa can identify with the modern direction of the school because he, in a way, built the man who built it.
Not only is he the intellectual grandfather of many unsuspecting students at Hillsdale College, but he also has 93 years of experience to speak from. As a man of Jewish faith, he struggled to find employment after graduating in the late thirties. Unable to find any, he pursued graduate studies where he happened into the classroom of Leo Strauss, renowned political philosopher and defected student of Martin Heidegger.
Jaffa biked haphazardly through Europe on a balloon-tire, one-speed bike in the months preceding World War II. He wrote six books and dozens of essays on topics ranging from Aristotle to the statesmanship of King Lear. He wrote Barry Goldwater’s famed line from his speech at the 1964 Republican National Convention: “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” And, he still makes it to the gym every day and entertains students in his home. Not bad for someone over ninety. Most interesting man in the world? Perhaps.
Harry Jaffa identifies with the soon-to-be Hillsdale College graduates. He loves the things that they love. He faced the job market that they face. He struggled like they will struggle. But he overcame the discrimination and economic immobility that held him back. The graduates need to know that they can overcome the things that hold them back, too. Jaffa won’t just send them off. He’ll make sure the door doesn’t hit them in the fanny on the way out.