What if Reagan Won in 1976

And what could Carter or Reagan have done to make Eagle Claw a success?

Probably nothing. The entire plan was stupid to begin with - SecState Cyrus Vance warned Carter not to do it. It was only approved without Vance's knowledge while he was away from Washington, and when he heard about it he resigned in protest. Which makes perfect sense: if an enemy state is holding unarmed hostages and threatening to kill them, then the best solution probably isn't to send helicopters into Tehran and take them back in a show of heavy-handed force. Ultimately the best solution was the one Carter used to diffuse the crisis: he bloodlessly got the hostages out of Iran in exchange for an arms deal.
 
One thing to remember: If Reagan is elected at all, it will probably be very narrowly. (The GOP will be much more divided than in 1980, eight years of Republicans in the White House is bound to produce some swing to the Democrats, Watergate will hurt the GOP to some extent under any nominee, Jimmy Carter in 1976 will not have the record to defend that he did in 1980, etc.) Thus, the Congress elected in 1976 will probably look far more like the one elected in OTL's 1976 than that with which Reagan would deal after OTL's 1980 (where Republicans took control of the Senate and with conservative Democrats gained something like de facto control of the House). I don't say that Reagan's 95th Congress will be 61-37 D in the Senate and 291-144 D in the House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95th_United_States_Congress but if--as I think--Reagan will do only marginally better than Ford (but just enough to win OH and MS and therefore the election) it will be pretty close to that.

The result is that whether you think 1980s Reaganomics in terms of tax cuts, deregulation, etc. was a good or bad thing, we are not likely to see much of it in 1977-81--at least in so far as it depends on legislation. (Admittedly Reagan could do some deregulatory things by executive action.)
 
One thing to remember: If Reagan is elected at all, it will probably be very narrowly. (The GOP will be much more divided than in 1980, eight years of Republicans in the White House is bound to produce some swing to the Democrats, Watergate will hurt the GOP to some extent under any nominee, Jimmy Carter in 1976 will not have the record to defend that he did in 1980, etc.) Thus, the Congress elected in 1976 will probably look far more like the one elected in OTL's 1976 than that with which Reagan would deal after OTL's 1980 (where Republicans took control of the Senate and with conservative Democrats gained something like de facto control of the House). I don't say that Reagan's 95th Congress will be 61-37 D in the Senate and 291-144 D in the House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/95th_United_States_Congress but if--as I think--Reagan will do only marginally better than Ford (but just enough to win OH and MS and therefore the election) it will be pretty close to that.

The result is that whether you think 1980s Reaganomics in terms of tax cuts, deregulation, etc. was a good or bad thing, we are not likely to see much of it in 1977-81--at least in so far as it depends on legislation. (Admittedly Reagan could do some deregulatory things by executive action.)
Oooh, imagine if we get Reagonomics with a worse recession than under carter -- same HARD monetarist policy as OTL carter and especially Reagan's first time. I imagine whatever dem wins in 1980 or imo less likely 84* will run campaigining against reagonomics

* well less likely since i dont see reagan winning reelection
 
Another possibility - with Reaganomics stymied by a Democratic Congress, would the Republican moderates seek to primary Reagan in 1980?
 
Another possibility - with Reaganomics stymied by a Democratic Congress, would the Republican moderates seek to primary Reagan in 1980?

Senator Chuck Percy of Illinois might do it, he almost tried to primary Ford in 1976.

BTW, if Bush is kept on at the CIA his political career might be over. The only thing he has left after 1980 is the Texas Governorship. If he wins that, then he'd have a good platform to challenge the Democrats in 1988. If not, then the torch is handed over to his sons a decade earlier.
 
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