Republican Congressman Christopher Shays, of Connecticut, defeated for reelection after more than two decades in the House, speaks at Brown University yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE — U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, who until last Tuesday was the only Republican House member from New England, told an audience at Brown University yesterday that he is still reeling over his defeat by a Democrat in Connecticut’s 4th district.

“In all candor, I can tell you I’m still shell-shocked. It’s been very difficult for me. The loss is very disappointing.”

Shays — who had been invited months ago to give the John Hazen White Lecture by the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy — said he feared his remarks might not have the credibility they would have carried had he won.

Asked by a student if the GOP’s sorry state in New England was more because the Republican brand name had become tarnished or because the region has become more liberal, the 21-year congressman said he thought it was a little of both.

Two decades ago, under the leadership of then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Republican Party had become the party of ideas, he said. In the last decade, the GOP seemed to become less concerned about finding practical solutions than about espousing an ideology that played to the religious right and punishing anyone seen as disloyal, he said.

In the end, he said, the party leaders became arrogant.

“It took the Democrats 40 years to get arrogant before they lost the House. It took us only 10 years, and then we lost,” he said.

He said time will tell whether Democrats will do the same, but his guess is that President-elect Barack Obama will help the Democrats avoid those mistakes at least for a while. To do so, he said, the Democrats will have to be careful not to cave in to the demands of their own ideologues and special-interest groups such as Moveon.org.

Though Shays said he never considered changing parties to run as a Democrat — “as a fiscal conservative and a supporter of free trade, I don’t think I would fit in” — he is open to accepting a post in the Obama administration.

“My dream would be to become secretary of state,” but since that job may be out of reach, he said, he wouldn’t mind being the director of the Peace Corps, having been a Peace Corps volunteer himself.

In his address in Salomon Hall, Shays bemoaned what he saw as the unwillingness of politicians in Washington to confront “inconvenient truths” such as the reality of Islamic terrorism, the dire need (especially in New England) for less expensive energy, a legal system which is designed more for lawyers than for the public, the need to rein in the exploding costs of benefits awarded to government workers and out-of-control deficits. He also sees a need for publicly supported vouchers to allow parents to send children to schools of their choice.

One of the biggest impediments to truth telling, he told the audience, has been the slow and steady dismantling of the nation’s newspapers.

The newspapers, he said, are “skeletons of what they used to be,” and the resulting reductions in staff have led to more superficial reporting.

rdujardi@projo.com