Have the 1986 immigration reform legislation which was signed by Reagan and which honest to gosh I think had an amnesty component, be both more successful and more widely acknowledged as one of the Gipper’s main achievements.
Just like only Nixon could go to China, Reagan could go places that another conservative could not!![]()
I don't think there was a clear partisan divide on immigration yet the way there is today.
Reagan even in 1980 was talking about the idea of open borders with Mexico. He'd be kicked out of the GOP for that today.,
The problem is even before Reagan came along, the Rockefeller Republicans were rapidly losing power. Compare 1960 where Rockefeller likely would of won the nomination without Nixon, and was essentially able to get a favourable VP candidate and force Nixon to adopt a Liberal Stance on Civil Rights (arguably costing Nixon the election).
By 1976, the Rockefeller Republicans couldn't even get Ford to keep their nominal leader as the vice president candidate, despite the fact that he was already the incumbent VP.
We should keep in mind that there is a difference between Rockefeller Republicans such as Rockefeller and Jacob Javits and the Moderate Republicans like Gerald Ford and Howard Baker.
The issue is, Rockefeller as VP didn't want to be confined to VP. From what I've heard, even as VP he was pitching ideas to Ford about Rocky running in 1976 rather than Ford.