Where the devolution of the Republican Party started: 1980 primaries

[no_hypocrisy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Republican_Party_presidential_primaries

The republican voters had a choice of a large slate of candidates during primary season in 1980.

Reagan, Bush, Dole, Anderson (who would go on to being an Independent candidate*), Baker, Crane, Connally, Fernandez, Stassen.

And the electorate chose Reagan after they chose Ford four years prior. Right-wing, nationalistic, war hawk. Yes, Reagan almost made it in 1976 and Ford had quite a challenge.

What happened in those four years? If Carter was going to be defeated, why Reagan? Bush and Dole were credible candidates.

If Reagan hadn't won the primaries and secured the nomination, and a non-RW candidate had been elected instead, my guess is that the Party and the country wouldn't have the crisis we're in now.

* John Anderson was courted by Roger Stone to return to the campaign trail as an independent against Carter and Reagan. Stone felt confident that Anderson would siphon votes from Carter as Anderson as a non-RW republican and the polls showed that Carter would win, allowing Democrats to vote against Carter and still get Carter. IOW, Anderson was a spoiler candidate put up by Roger Stone.

[Walleye]

1. That was when the GOP decided that politics was just showbiz

[betsuni]

2. Of all right-wingers, even Trump, I can't bear Reagan's voice.

I had a visceral reaction.

Carter was an actual born-again Christian, true Christian, a good, honest person. People went with the fake who lied to them. Was the beginning of hyper-commercialism in the U.S., when everything became about making money.

[jimfields33]

3. I was eight years old. The thing I remember was the sweater he put on to keep warm.

I thought it was a good idea. But I do know many people were not humored by that.

[48656c6c6f20]

4. I disagree, September 8, 1974

This was the start.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_of_Richard_Nixon

[Wounded Bear]

7. Indeed! nt

[hvn_nbr_2]

10. I'd push it back even farther: Joe McCarthy

Joe McCarthy is still the patron saint and essence of the Republican party.

[hvn_nbr_2]

11. Oh, I should add: clever user name

I haven't had to look at an ASCII chart in years.

[chriscan64]

5. That is an important point in the history.

I think that a major shift happened when Nixon went with his southern strategy in 1972. The Democratic party had been the home of segregationists prior to the Civil Rights Act and Voting Act. Segregationist voters would have been out in the cold if Nixon had not appealed to them. Some would have voted republican just to punish the Democrats, but Nixon's efforts let them know en masse that they had a new home. He did not do it directly, it was with a wink using terms like "law and order". The large win in '72 was the blueprint for Reagan's strategy. They realized they could not run on just helping business and the wealthy. They had to pad the numbers with racists. Reagan added the Christian Right to the mix.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. It was a precursor. You can't discount that the "Southern Vote" went to Carter in 1976.

Reagan was felt to be too extreme before 1980. Both Californians and outside voters remembered his heavy hand with dealing with student demonstrators and how he mused how it would be a shame if there was botulism in the canned goods distributed to the Poor to gain the release of kidnapped Patricia Hearst.

[chriscan64]

9. That is a good point.

1976 had a Democratic candidate from the south and Ford had some of the stink of Watergate by way of the Nixon pardon. It delayed Reagan but he succeeded in looking less extreme by 1980.

[question everything]

8. Voters like to feel connected to the president. Either being personable

Reagan, Clinton, Junior, Obama or some other visceral connection - Trump.

There was nothing personable about Dole or Senior.

Regardless of what we think about Reagan, and I will always remember him starting with welcoming the religious wrong to the party that used to be "live and let live," he was personable even his "there we go again." And many thought that they would enjoy having beer with Junior.

And, I will always hold Kennedy as at least partially responsible for Carter losing. When a sitting president is challenged by a member of his own party the damage is done. Even when interviewed, Kennedy could not explain why he was running.

[Polybius]

12. Reagan may have been a "war hawk" but he didn't start any major wars

Unlike the idiot Bush father and son Republican's that came after him.

[edhopper]

13. He was too busy placating terrorist

in Iran and Lebanon.

[Doc_Technical]

14. He was also too busy placating terrorists,

the Nicaraguan "Contras" who
(" are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers&quot

Then there is the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing.

[edhopper]

16. Those were the terrorist in Lebanon

I referred to, whom he released.

[JI7]

15. The Southern Strategy where Republicans used democratic support

for civil rights to get racist whites to support them.

[edhopper]

17. Nixon

got elected because of this.

Voting in the South has been a bane to America for 50 years.