The Moderates’ Last Stand

Gerald Ford and the GOP.

By Jonathan Martin
National Review Online

Pardons and Poland aside, the 1976 election represented a turning point in American political history. President Gerald Ford was, of course, damaged by his clearing a disgraced Richard Nixon of any legal liability from the Watergate scandal and his fall-debate gaffe where he asserted that there was “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.” And today, as we watch endless clips of the honest and honorable Ford in action, it is these images that are frequently shown to explain the political course of events that bicentennial year. But it was the competition for the Republican nomination in the winter, spring, and summer of that year that would have the more profound impact on the course of the nation. That fiercely contested battle would signal the ascendancy of conservatism and the movement’s tightening grip on the Republican party, while sounding the death knell for the liberal consensus that had shaped the country’s politics for the entirety of the postwar era.