WI: Ford wins in '76 and redefines American conservatism as medium steps?

President Ford wins re-election in '76 by better selling the idea that we were recovering from the rather serious '75 recession, which also has the virtue of largely being true.

And then he promotes the idea that you've got to start with the status quo. I mean, what the hell else are you going to start with? And you improve things by taking a medium step and seeing how it works out. Maybe he says in ATL: You can't lead people from three miles down the road. And let's suppose this really catches people's imagination.

Contrast this with OTL where many, probably most, Republicans love the phrase "The Reagan Revolution."

And Democrats become known as the party advocating big sweeping change all at once.

How does this play out?
 
Last edited:
There's Edmund Burke from the 1700s:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/05/mr-conservative/306761/

' . . . Tradition-minded but (contrary to stereotype) far from reactionary, he believed in balancing individual rights with social order. The best way to do that, for Burke, was by respecting long-standing customs and institutions while advancing toward liberty and equality. Society’s traditions, after all, embody an evolved collective wisdom that even (or especially) the smartest of individuals cannot hope to understand comprehensively, much less reinvent successfully. . . '
This is a different flavor of conservatism. And perhaps pre-Goldwater, this used to be the dominant one.

WI: This re-emerges as the main, dominant type of conservatism in 1978, '79, '80?

Ford would still have a Democratic Congress. It would be interesting.
 
Top