My Republican hero

College Station, Texas - my hometown - is a famously conservative town. George Bush Drive runs right through the center of town, right down to the George H.W. Bush presidential library. In 2001, when they saw my dyed-blue hair, some College Station residents thought it would be funny to yell "fag!" and throw a beer bottle at me from their truck. Nor is that kind of thing particularly unusual. A president of Texas A&M, the university there, once stated that he'd rather accept a kid with average SATs who respected the school's traditions than one with good SATs who didn't.

But when I returned to College Station in 2006 after a long absence, things had subtly changed. I went to a party for grad students and professors - they played guitar, they served up ethnic food, and they talked smack about Republicans. The playlist was 90s-style alternative rock. And it wasn't just the grad student scene, either. At the grocery store, maybe a quarter of the shoppers were Asian. At Northgate (what passes for a tiny little downtown next to A&M campus), kids were wearing Converse instead of cowboy boots. At a Mexican restaurant, a table of normal-looking kids in maroon A&M shirts were discussing fantasy books.

My hometown was becoming a very different place. A much better place.

Asking around, I kept hearing the same two-word explanation for the change: Bob Gates. In 2002, Robert Michael Gates, former head of the CIA, became president of Texas A&M University, a position he held for over three years. During that time, he led an extensive modernization program, designed to catapult A&M to the status of a global elite university. Of course, that meant admitting students (and hiring professors) based on ability instead of culture. Which meant, primarily, liberals and foreigners.

How did one man manage to do this, in the face of an ancient and ossified A&M establishment that had so far resisted all attempts at modernization? From everything I've heard, it has to do with Gates' unique leadership style. Quiet and unassuming, Gates is also a no-nonsense pragmatist. He looks at the interests of the institution he is running - not the interests of any faction, but of the whole - and quickly perceives a set of simple policies that will advance those interests. And then he persuades the powers that be of the necessity of the policies, making it clear that his ego has nothing to do with his choices. The combination of an iron will and an utter lack of egotism seems to be very persuasive. The result - vested factions are able to unite to serve the greater good.

So I think it's no coincidence that ever since Gates became our Secretary of Defense, the Iraq situation and the Army recruitment problem have both noticeably improved. And I think it's no coincidence that both Obama and McCain are talking about keeping him around as SecDef. America now knows what I know.

Bob Gates, to me, represents the very best of the vanishing "Anglo" civilization that built our country: pragmatism, simplicity, and selfless leadership. As a Southern white guy, he's a natural member of the Republican tribe, but he's no tribalist. To him, Indians and Koreans and long-haired hippies are real Aggies if they contribute to the success of A&M. All you have to do is put on a maroon shirt.

That is the kind of Republican we need. Not the ones we've mostly got.