“Would I have supported Reagan in 1980, if I’d have been of age to care? Would I have dismissed him as a pretty boy actor with no depth? I don’t know. I never had the opportunity.”
Those are some of the “what ifs?” we all ask ourselves from time to time. I know many people my age who did not support Reagan in 1976 or 1980 who either thought he was unelectable or too shallow (the acting thing) and they are, and were, just as conservative as I. History had to have its say before we knew. And there were many points at which Reagan could have chosen another path:
I often wonder, and Craig Shirley speculates in his book, that had Ford been more solicitous of Reagan during 1974 and 1975 if Reagan would have even run in 1976. If Ford had taken a few minor steps like meeting with Solzhenitsyn and choosing a more conservative VP, it is quite probable that Reagan’s disinclination to attack his own Party and its President would have prevailed. If he had not run in 1976, there would have been no 1980 campaign. A first time candidate at 69? Not likely.
Similarly, if Reagan (who had been beaten in five straight primaries in 1976) had lost the sixth in North Carolina, he would have withdrawn, a miserably failed candidate who would not have had the credibility to run in 1980.
If these (or a multitude of other “what ifs?”)had occurred, Reagan would never have been President. He would still be a fine man, who had great potential, but it would be impossible for me or countless others, who had real faith in him from 1968 on, to prove that he would have been a great President. It would have been just as plausible to contend that he was a former actor who had an uneventful two terms in Sacramento and then disappeared. Not much different from his friend George Murphy.
Watching politics for a number of years has had the paradoxical effect of increasing my faith that God is actually directing these events.
SEYC: Your passion is commendable. I sometimes go overboard myself, even at my advanced age. I hope no one takes great offense LOL. I remember being so furious in 1976 when Ford took the nomination away from Reagan by what I considered to be underhanded means(withholding $2 million in federal matching funds to Reagan’s campaign during the primaries that cost him delegates in New Jersey, Michigan, Kentucky and Wisconsin that probably would have given him the nomination)that I switched my registration to independent for a brief period (although I wound up voting for Ford)
Agreed. Also, I’ve always firmly believed, that despite the failing economy, oil crisis, et al, there wouldn’t have been a Reagan if Carter hadn’t been such a miserable failure at dealing with the Iran hostage crisis. Carter’s missteps there really sealed his fate.
I did support Reagan in 1980--and in 1976, and in 1968. I knew Craig Shirley when he was working out of a small low-rent office in an old building on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. No, I'm not in his book, unfortunately--or perhaps, fortunately. I was also at the RNC at Kansas City in 1976.