Whitewing said:
I'm not at all worried about the pub party. They'll just become donk-lites to win elections.
which is why what happened 1976 is so relevant today
Not having won the presidential nomination in his own right, Ford did not have the expectation of an automatic nomination in 1976. He in fact faced a strong challenge from Ronald Reagan, former governor of California and now the face of conservatism in the Republican Party.
Ronald Reagan's campaign decided that it might make him more acceptable to Republican moderates if he chose some from that wing as his running mate, so he broke tradition and announced early that he would pick Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania. Instead, the choice of Schweiker alienated some of his conservative backers while enticing few moderates to back him.
and he lost... and we lost the election..
but that is only part of the story..
the senate was split about 60 - 40 in favor of the democrats..
and stayed unchanged.
the house was split 292 to 143
This election is notable for being the last time any party had a veto-proof majority in the House. The Conservative Party, which was the third largest political party at the time, had begun to fracture prior to the election and declined along with the divided American Independent Party and the Liberal Party of New York, thus allowing the fledgeling Libertarian Party to grow.
so effectively Carter had it all when it came to pushing an agenda..
the Conservatives were all but dead.. as a party goes.. even Reagan's attempts to show a moderate side wasn't enough.. and Ford was by all accounts moderate.. and they still lost big time..
the Answer.. well in 72 there was a huge push to get more moderate..
the party elite thought it would be better to push fro even more moderate candidates.. now that the pesky conservatives had been all but broken..
even with the democrats in chaos
This year is the Republicans’ 1972—or it could be, if they get lucky. Not because they’ll lose the Presidency by the same huge margin as those Democrats—they might well win—but because they’ve reached the same stage of petrified theology, capture by their extremes, and self-isolation from their old majority.
so as much as things change... they stay the same... when conservatives moved away from there principles.. they lost..
when we embrace them.. Like Reagan did.. and even Nixon.. we win... by landslides..
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