It's About Coalitions Not Purity, Part Nine

First published in September 2012


The Reagan Coalition and the Rise of the American Political Right, Part One

Gerald Ford was an "establishment Republican;" that is, he was very much in the main stream of not only the Republican Party, but of American politics in general, favored by business people, farmers, and middle class workers. He had served many terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans were almost always in the minority during that time, and he was close friends with many Democrats, even though he was (Republican) Minority Leader of the House from the mid 1960s until his appointment to the vice presidency by President Nixon in late 1973. Ronald Reagan, a former Democrat and union member, had attracted much conservative support from around the country, and his former political affiliation and union membership gave him an inroad into traditional Democrats, with the idea that "it's okay to vote for me, I was a Democrat too."

Many conservatives were upset about the failure of Nixon and Ford to go all out to win the Vietnam War, but public opinion had shifted more and more away from support for the war, a factor which led President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, to a decision not to seek reelection in 1968.* Nixon had implemented a policy of gradual withdrawal from South Vietnam, as well as selective military strikes, including air strikes against North Vietnam. When Ford replaced Nixon, the final stages of American withdrawal were taking place, but many conservatives wanted more military and financial support for the weak South Vietnamese army, something neither Ford nor (seemingly) the country were willing to do. Conservatives were infuriated by the final withdrawal of Americans and the collapse of the South Vietnamese, as American Marines were evacuated by helicopter from the embassy, as surging communist forces neared the complex, an event captured on film and viewed by millions of Americans on television for days thereafter. Further, Nixon had opened up diplomatic relations with (communist) China and had worked to improve relations with the Soviet Union, policies continued by his successor, Ford. Again, many conservatives were often outraged by these policies, and Ronald Reagan offered them a voice by talking of only dealing with communist regimes from a position of military strength, and offering a belief that what he and conservatives perceived to be American weakness increased the chances of nuclear war.

Reagan challenged Ford for the Republican nomination, but initially Ford and the then dominant liberal to moderate wing of the party** gave Ford the upper hand. Then Reagan came into far more conservative states, where he put together a number of wins over Ford. Ford retained much of the traditional Republican base, with Reagan putting together hard line conservatives and a growing fundamentalist religious element, by its very nature, highly conservative. While Democrats still controlled the South, transplants from other parts of the country and a gradual change in party affiliation from Democrat to Republican by conservative southerners were leading to a growing Republican Party in the South, an area where Reagan bested Ford, including in Texas. Terrified traditional Republicans, fearful of the defeat of a sitting Republican president in the nominating process by a hard line conservative, perceived to be outside the mainstream of American politics, closed ranks behind Ford, who finally achieved the nomination, but with bitter feelings by Reagan and conservatives, who were not terribly enthused over supporting Ford in the general election.

The election produced a victory for moderate Democrat Jimmy Carter, a southerner from Georgia, who carried the South, except for Virginia. which he lost by a close margin. Ford started the campaign far behind, but a rousing convention speech, a personal likeability, and a grudging acceptance by many conservatives helped him close the substantial gap. In the end though, Carter carried important Ohio by just 11,000 votes and Wisconsin by a larger margin, and he clinched the presidency. With Ford defeated and a Democrat in the White House, the way was much more open for another Reagan run for the presidency in 1980.   

* Lyndon Johnson had escalated the war considerably, and the public generally had supported that effort, but unlike the then fairly recent battlefields of World War Two and Korea, the war in South Vietnam was a mixture of civil war (pro communist forces against the existing South Vietnamese government), and a communist guerrilla war against foreign interests; first, the French, and then more so the United States. The overall country had been divided into communist dominated North Vietnam and dictatorial South Vietnam in 1954. The subject of the war is far too complicated for this article, but it would make a great subject for several articles in the future. Gradually, public opinion in the U.S. began to shift against American involvement in Vietnam, as the war came to be seen as virtually unwinnable and a drain on American lives and resources. Eugene McCarthy, a Democratic senator from Minnesota, galvanized the growing opposition to the war and challenged Johnson for the Democratic nomination in 1968. McCarthy's more than respectable second place showing in the New Hampshire primary brought Johnson, an astute politician, to the realization that his reelection, and indeed, his very renomination, was far from certain and he chose to step aside. This was a case where Johnson saw his coalition of Democrats coming apart.  

** At that point in time (and you must keep the time period perspective in mind), while Republicans tilted rightward, the party was not decisively conservative, as conservative southern Democrats had not yet completely gone over to the Republican Party, although their votes for president had increasingly gone to that side of the ballot. There were still "liberal" Republicans, too, although they were becoming a rare breed, but added to the numerous moderates, this wing outnumbered conservatives, especially true right wingers. The American system of primaries is odd. It is controlled by the states, but only in a sense, as more particularly the political parties in each state control the primaries. Some states have what are termed "closed" primaries; that is, a voter must be registered with a particular party in order to vote on candidates in that party. Other states have "open" primaries, where registered voters can ask for any party's ballot. So, in the first case, if you're registered in your county as a "Democratic-Republican," you must take the "Democratic-Republican" ballot. In the second case, you can ask for the ballot from any party. Some states do not require a person to claim allegiance to a particular party when they register, while other states do require such, but a voter can always change party affiliation, but the change is governed by state registration laws, which might require a person to change party affiliation at least thirty days or more in advance of an election. In Ohio, you give a preference for political party when you first vote, but you can literally change on the day of a primary election, so Ohio is an "open primary" state. Let's say you register and vote as a Democrat, so the rolls will show you as a Democrat, but the next primary election when you go to vote, the election worker will ask which ballot you want, at which time you can ask for the Republican ballot, although "in theory" you are then "supposed" to swear an oath of allegiance to your new party before voting. 
  
WORD HISTORY:
Yield-Before English borrowed "(to) pay" from French around 1300, this was one of the words used by English speakers to convey the meaning, "to pay." The ultimate origin of this is word unclear, and forms only seem to be in Germanic, except where a couple of non Germanic dialects borrowed it. Old Germanic had "geldanan," which meant "to pay, pay back." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "geldan" and "gieldan," depending upon dialect, with the same meanings, including "punish," from the notion of "pay back." Later it became "yielden," before the modern version. The idea of "pay back," also used in the sense of "interest earned on investments," as in, "The savings account yields ("pays") 4% interest" (pay back for your investment), further gave the extended meaning "to produce," as in, "My garden yields lots of tomatoes" (pay back for your time and effort). The notion of "paying;" that is, "handing over," seems to have led to the idea of "give way, surrender," as in "yield (give way) to oncoming traffic." The noun form was derived from the verb. Forms are common in the other Germanic languages, with associated, but varied meanings, most of which tie somehow into the idea of "pay" or "be worth paying:" German has "gelten," which means "to be valid, have worth," ( it once meant "pay back" and "produce income," like its English cousin), Low German Saxon has "gellen" (notice the "d/t" sound is gone). with much the same meanings as standard German, Dutch has "gelden" (to be valid, be worth concern), Frisian has "jilde" ("pay," but apparently archaic), Icelandic has "gjalda" ("pay back in kind, pay," in the sense "suffer"),  Danish has "yde" (yield, pay), Norwegian has "-yeld" as part of a compound word meaning "to reciprocate" (pay back) and "ytelse" (yield), Swedish has "gälla" (be valid, be correct).