Lamar Alexander

“We need to put the teaching of American history and civics back in our schools so our children can grow up learning what it means to be an American,” I told Dr. Ken Berry (@KenDBerryMD) when we discussed my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. In chapter 31, I write about how the horrors of the terrorist planes crashing into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, became a lesson about what it means to be an American. I watched the national conversation shift from what pulls us apart to what pulls us together. Suddenly, Americans were again saying that diversity is important, but that our greatest strength is something different. “No other nation has so successfully combined people of different races and nations into a single culture,” was how Margaret Thatcher explained it. Throughout most of our country’s life, the national conversation had been a public classroom for teaching belief in the principles that allowed citizens of all backgrounds to say, “We are all Americans.” At the beginning of the twentieth century, as President Theodore Roosevelt was inveighing against “hyphenated Americanism,” institutions from Boy and Girl Scouts to Kiwanis Clubs “Americanized” a surge of immigrants. During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt made sure that those who charged the beaches of Normandy knew they were fighting for the Four Freedoms. The chief Americanizing institution was the public school. McGuffey’s Readers sold 120 million copies to create a common culture of literature, patriotic speeches, and historical references, according to Diane Ravitch. But for forty years, the conversation about what it means to be an American had been heading in a different direction. New waves of immigration, new cultural attitudes, and new scholarship had been challenging the notion that the greatest accomplishment of the United States of America, after establishing freedom and democracy, had been to find a way to unite its diversity into one country. Public schools had become reluctant to teach core values because teachers were afraid to answer the question, “Whose values?” Americans were ignoring the country’s original motto—three Latin words engraved above the presiding officer’s chair in the Senate, 𝘌 𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘶𝘮—” Out of many, one.” “We have too much pluribus and not enough unum,” filmmaker Ken Burns said. “If it were many out of one, we would be the United Nations, not the United States of America,” Samuel Huntington wrote. At least for a while, America’s response to 9/11 was to celebrate unity over diversity. After 9/11, television did the Americanizing, displaying patriotic exercises, prayers in prime time, President Bush’s visit to the Islamic Center, and NFL players reciting the Declaration of Independence. At Thanksgiving, Bush spoke of “the American character.” At Harvard’s Kennedy School, Al Gore said, “We should honor their memories by fighting for the values that bind us together as a country.” The Republican and Democratic presidential contestants of the previous year were saying the same thing, invoking a traditional, value-based national identity. Americans were listening. You can watch the full conversation here: youtube.com/watch?v=0jsMX_… In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

It’s an honor for my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, to be reviewed in The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ). I’m grateful for the thoughtful and thorough review — covering everything from my "Boys State electioneering” to my early swearing-in as governor of Tennessee and all the way to the first Trump impeachment. I especially appreciate the highlighting of my three mentors — Sen. Howard Baker, Judge John Minor Wisdom of New Orleans, and Bryce Harlow—and their “enduring influence." As I write in the book, I have concluded that character and temperament are the most important traits for anyone holding public office. I learned this growing up—in my home, church, scout troop, and school. My piano teacher made sure I knew the motto of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, the violinist and music teacher: “Character first. Ability second.” Judge Wisdom and Sen. Baker reinforced these values. So did seeing firsthand the stress and the scope of responsibilities of the ten presidents with whom I worked. I am a conservative—a very Republican Republican—but character and temperament matter more to me in choosing a public official than whether that person leans left or right. Some tell me that putting such a premium on character is naïve. I tell them Bryce Harlow’s story about the time President Eisenhower’s cabinet was divided, and Ike asked, “Well, what would be the 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 thing to do?” If a president who was also the Supreme Allied Commander in World War II could make decisions on that basis, perhaps the rest of us could too. Today’s Digital Democracy discourages putting a premium on character. Instead, it creates an incentive to use coarse language to advocate extreme views on social media to attract attention, raise money, and win primary elections. Campaigns in our Digital Democracy are not easy. I believe that it takes fighting fire with fire. Since social media is the root of the problem, social media must be a part of the solution. I do not mean trying to defeat one’s opponent by adopting an even more extreme position or using even coarser language. Instead, use social media messages to attract into primaries more voters who prefer candidates who want to govern instead of those who think their job is done when they finish a speech. You can read the full review here: wsj.com/arts-culture/b…

Last month, I had a wonderful discussion with former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (@purduemitch) on The Future of Liberty podcast (@Liberty_Fund), where we discussed my memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR, and the role of the filibuster in today's politics. You can listen to the full episode here: thefutureofliberty.org/episode/lamar-…

“Everyone seems to have a scheme for improving student achievement, but to me, it boils down to parents and teachers,” I told Dr. Ken Berry (@KenDBerryMD) when we talked about my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR FROM JFK TO TRUMP. In Chapter 25, I describe how the most controversial initiative of my “Better Schools Program” when I was governor was the “Master Teacher Program,” a career ladder and evaluation system. Since I did not know how to write a “Better 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 Program,” I proposed a plan to reward better teachers and keep them in the classroom. In 1983, not one state paid one teacher one penny more for teaching well. When colleges of education told me there was no way to pay teachers more based on their proficiency, I thought that was nonsense. Universities did it. IBM did it. I turned to Chester (“Checker”) Finn Jr., a Vanderbilt University professor with whom I had worked on the Nixon White House staff. He helped design a plan to offer teachers a $1,000 raise if they passed the National Teachers Exam (36,000 did). Instead of the standard nine-month teaching contract, teachers could also qualify for ten-, eleven-, or twelve-month contracts with up to $7,000 more a year in salary—if they succeeded on a state-designed evaluation (ten thousand eventually did). At a meeting on school reform in the fall of 1982, Texas Governor Bill Clements, a brash oilman, had challenged other Southern governors. “When is one of you bastards going to get up the nerve to take on the NEA?” he asked. Clements must have been talking to me. The Master Teacher debate provoked a brawl that attracted national attention. The enraged National Education Association even raised the dues of its Tennessee members to fight my plan to pay its members higher salaries. In the 1983 legislative session, the NEA won. Legislators dispatched my career ladder plan to a “graveyard” committee for further study, from which it would likely never return. I was defeated, but not about to give up. I decided to resign as governor and run for reelection in a special election. I would ask the people the Master Teacher question—should Tennessee become the first state to pay teachers more for teaching well? The state attorney general quashed that idea, saying that I would be running for a third consecutive term and that the constitution only allowed two. When my plan to resign didn’t work, I brought out my secret weapon. Ronald Reagan agreed to come to Tennessee to tout the “Better Schools Program.” “It’s the American way. It is a simple American philosophy that dominates nearly every other profession. So why not this one?” Reagan said when he visited Knoxville’s Farragut High School on June 14th, 1984, to lend support to my merit pay proposal for teachers. With the president’s push, Tennessee became the first state to pay teachers more for teaching well. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

My memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR, is out now from @PostHillPress. You can order it here: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

As I write for today's National Review Online (@NRO), President Trump and his allies are doing their best to convince senators to change Senate rules, nuke the filibuster, and fire the parliamentarian. The President’s weakest argument is, “If we don’t do it, Democrats will.” It perverts the Golden Rule and various Bible verses to say, “Do unto others BEFORE they do it unto you.” And most of us learned as youngsters that two wrongs don’t make a right. The wrong here would be to end the Senate’s incentive to force senators to keep talking until they find agreement at a time when our democracy is so polarized. Surely, Republican senators do not want to be remembered for doing that. You can read it here: nationalreview.com/2026/07/the-se…

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Honey said one night at the dinner table after seven years in the governor’s residence. “I mean really out of here, a long way away. We need some space, to see ourselves from another perspective. We need to get to know each other again.” So on the day I left office in January 1987, our family with three teenagers and a seven-year-old flew to Australia for six months off. “The others are running for president and you’re running for the other side of the world,” one reporter protested. This is an excerpt from my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, where I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

In my conversation with Dr. Ken Berry (@KenDBerryMD), we talked about the advantages of growing up in a small town, which I wrote about in Chapters 3 and 4 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. Ken is raising his children in a town of 100 in Benton County, Tennessee. When I was born, Maryville, Tennessee had a population of 5000. Growing up in Maryville wound me up and thrust me on my way, too naïve to know what was impossible to achieve. During my teenage years, I watched Tennessee play Alabama in their first televised college football game, wore pink-and-black T-shirts with sleeves rolled up to show my muscles, and listened to Pat Boone and the Everly Brothers. During summers, I kept busy as a counselor at a Florida dude ranch and a Boy Scout Camp, where I blew the bugle, provoking one camper to shoot me with a BB gun when reveille woke him up. From first grade on, there were plenty of opportunities to taste success—to become an Eagle Scout, to achieve superior ratings in piano competitions, to win in sports and sing well enough at choir practice to appear on Sunday. There were contests to see who could read the most books. Of course, not everyone always succeeded, but to pick us up and encourage us, there were scoutmasters and Sunday school teachers, neighbors and friends who we called “Aunt Betty” or “Uncle Connor” or “Aunt Maxey,” even though there was no blood relationship. If we wandered off track, these surrogates would notice, help us back on track, then usually inform our actual parents. By the time I graduated from Maryville High School, I was motivated, applauded, well-trained, and launched on a trajectory that would seem to have no limit. Growing up in Maryville, anything seemed possible. Thirty-five years later, after being propelled by such an upbringing, I ran for president of the United States, telling stories of how I grew up. “You talk too much about Maryville. Not every town is like that,” my campaign chairman, William Bennett, the former US secretary of education, said. “Well, they should be,” I told him. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

In public life, it helps to have a sense of purpose and a sense of humor. Lindsey Graham had both. His purpose included building a strong national defense and confirming federal judges who strictly interpret the Constitution. His humor made him friends even with those who disagreed with him. I will miss Lindsey.

Gerald Ford refused to run a television commercial that his campaign consultant Doug Bailey thought would have reelected the President. I tell that story in Chapter 17 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. After pardoning Nixon in 1974, Ford was 22 points behind Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election polls. Bailey and his partner John Deardorff helped Ford cut Carter’s lead to two points by election day. To the tune of a campaign song, “I’m Feeling Good About America,” the consultants made a television commercial focusing on Ford’s likability. Two years later, when Bailey was my consultant in my race for governor, he showed me a Ford commercial that was not so cheerful. It began with gunshots recalling the September 1975 assassination attempts against the president. The black-and-white commercial was so unsettling that Ford refused to use it, though Bailey told me he believed it would have won the election. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

I am grateful to President George W. Bush’s chief political adviser, @KarlRove, for his kind words about my memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. In Chapter 31, I describe my futile attempt to run for the presidency against Bush in 1999 and Dick Cheney’s call the next year asking me to be one of a “handful” that Bush considered for vice president. In Chapter 38, I describe why George W. is the most “normal” of the ten presidents with whom I worked. Karl Rove was the chief architect and campaign manager for Bush’s winning campaign in 2000. I know firsthand how shrewd and effective Karl is as a political adviser because Bush left me in the dust. While I had run well in 1996, coming close in the New Hampshire presidential primary, my campaign for the 2000 Republican nomination lasted about as long as the Wright Brothers’ first flight. I learned from experience the lesson that every presidential candidate learns: the difference between running for governor and running for president is the difference between eighth-grade basketball and the NBA Finals. Since Karl left the White House, he has put his political skills to good use serving as a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, commentator for Fox News, and author of THE TRIUMPH OF WILLIAM MCKINLEY. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

The Alfalfa Club’s annual dinner was my favorite of the big Washington, D.C. dinners, as I explain in chapter 47 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. The event annually attracted 1000 black-tied big shots from the Chief Justice to Warren Buffett for an evening of good-natured foolishness and humor that “singes but does not burn." Every year, the club nominates a candidate for president of the United States who, of course, loses the next election. When I was nominated in 2011 for my acceptance speech, I played a nine-foot Steinway and sang new lyrics to country songs. For House Speaker John Boehner, who was seated at the head table, I sang “Crying Time.” Boehner, who smoked Camel cigarettes incessantly and was always tanned, often ruined his tough guy image by crying in public. I sang this verse to Boehner, who responded from across the room with an obscene gesture: “Well, it's crying time again for Mister Speaker; Could it be that Camel Light smoke in his eyes? Who knows if he’s just heard some sad, sad story Or if he’s reacting to some spray tan dye.” In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

"'Walk in Parades. If it’s the Mule Day parade, walk at the front,' Lamar Alexander’s LITTLE PLAID BOOK advises. For many years, our family walked at the front of the parade when one hundred thousand mule lovers celebrated in Columbia, Tennessee. Usually, I invited local cub scouts to walk with us, making it less likely that some unhappy citizen along the route would shout something unpleasant at me.” This is an excerpt from my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, where I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

I can still remember the first time those eleven words came out of my mouth—"I will be a candidate for President of the United States”. In Chapter 31 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I write about attending a noisy White House party in early December 1992, four weeks after Governor Bill Clinton had defeated President George H.W. Bush. I found myself face to face with a swarthy man. We introduced ourselves. “I am the California Republican Party’s largest contributor,” Sam Bamieh said. “I am the Secretary of Education—for at least another few weeks,” I said. “What are you going to do next?” Bamieh asked. Well, I thought to myself, if I’m ever going to say it, I might as well start with all these people with so much money in one place. I blurted it out. “I’m going to be running for President,” I said. “President of what?” Bamieh asked loudly. That was my first lesson in presidential campaign humility—and a reminder that the difference between running for governor (which I had done three times) and running for president is the difference between eighth-grade basketball and the NBA finals. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

My marketing director Liz Wolgemuth suggested BORN ON THE 3RD OF JULY as the title for my new memoir, but instead I chose THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. Liz’s idea might have been catchier, and it would have been accurate. As I write in Chapter 3, what Maryville did not have in 1940 was a good hospital, and my parents had no car. That is why on Wednesday afternoon, July 3rd, 1940, my mother’s cousin drove her to Fort Sanders Hospital in Knoxville, where I narrowly missed being born in the midst of Independence Day celebrations. “I tried, son. It was close. The fireworks were popping,” Mother said. The fireworks that mattered on Independence Day, 1940, were popping in Europe. The British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe were lighting up the skies above London. My late editor Will Murphy suggested the title I used. I liked it because I wrote the book to tell stories of how seeing public life from about every angle over nearly six decades and working with ten presidents allowed me to wake up every day as senator and governor thinking that I might be able to do something good for my state or country and go to bed most nights thinking that I had. I joked with Jon Meacham, who wrote the book’s foreword, that the most effective title would have been “Foreword by Jon Meacham” because that would have sold 100,000 copies before buyers figured out that I was the author. This photograph on my birthday yesterday was at the Blackberry Farm 4th of July parade held a day early on my birthday. In the 1974 Volkswagen Thing with me are my son, Will’s family, their dog Teddy, and my cavalier spaniel Rufus.

In Chapters 31 and 32 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I explain that my hometown was not the only place I had trouble getting anyone to take me seriously when I ran for President. After a long day of campaigning, I arrived in Marietta, Georgia, well after midnight. The local committee insisted I spend the night at a bed-and-breakfast. The owner insisted that I get up early the next morning to try her “special muffins.” So, about 6 a.m., I stumbled down the stairs. There was the lady, the kitchen table, the “special muffins,” a pitcher of orange juice, coffee, and a coffee cup. I proceeded to do something I had never done before and am not likely to do again. I picked up the pitcher of orange juice and poured it into the coffee cup. The lady looked at me for a long time and finally said, “I sure hope you’re not running for anything big.” In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…

Bob Corker had a hard time deciding which job he wanted—governor or Senator. He chose the Senate, but the job he liked best was mayor of Chattanooga, and I explain why in Chapter 42 of my new memoir THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. I had a terrific day in Chattanooga last week talking about my new book with Corker (@SenBobCorker), my former Senate colleague, at an overflow meeting of 300 Rotarians. I also talked with @Local3News anchor @gregglover3 (I once watched Greg when he was the high-stepping drum major of the UT Pride of the Southland Marching Band) and @AlisonLebovitz of @TheAListWTCI. I swung by the WDEF studio, and I also chatted with state Sen. Bo Watson (@SenBoWatson) for his podcast, Tennessee Today. It was a good opportunity to talk about how much has changed in the Scenic City over the past few decades—from the Volkswagen plant to the Tennessee Aquarium—right at a time Chattanooga is hosting the men's soccer team from Spain for the World Cup. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from @PostHillPress. You can use this link to order: simonandschuster.com/books/The-Educ…