Unforgettable Change: 1960s: The New Right Elects Ronald Reagan Governor

Ronald Reagan, a one-time actor and former Democrat, achieved political power first as California’s Republican governor in 1966 and then as president in 1980. He campaigned as a sworn enemy of big government and high taxes, while praising individual initiative and an enduring moral order. Although he came to power at the height of successful, big-government initiatives, Reagan’s message resonated with a constituency who held reservations about post-war government expansion and influence. Reagan’s enduring legacy is that he changed the terms of the debate on government action to a question of whether the government should be trusted to accomplish its stated goals or if the enterprise would be better served by the private sector.

Reagan’s political transition from political moderate to messenger of the New Right began in the 1950s at a time of national anxiety over Soviet communism and its possible influence upon American hearts and minds. During that era, several thinkers and organizations were beginning to articulate a view contrary to the liberal perspective that had governed American politics through the decades of the Great Depression, World War II, and its aftermath.

In 1955, a Yale-educated, New York-based intellectual named William F. Buckley launched The National Review, a magazine advocating conservative positions on contemporary events and politics. At the same time, Milton Friedman, a professor at the University of Chicago gained national attention for his economic-based critiques of an expanded, post-New Deal, post-World War II Federal government. In 1957, Russian expatriate novelist Ayn Rand published the best-selling Atlas Shrugged, whose theme extolled the virtues of rational self-interest.

In contrast to these proponents of individual choice over state control, the federal government was expanding. Under President Eisenhower, the U.S. took its first tentative steps to reverse centuries of school segregation based on race as mandated by the unanimous 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown vs. Board of Education. In response to this new power of the Federal government to command state and local affairs arose new spokesmen to rail against the power of government, such as Governors George Wallace and Lester Maddox. Other conservative groups with a similar outlook, such as the John Birch Society, were labeled kooks and extremists. They had outraged many Americans by smearing President Eisenhower’s brother, Milton, as a communist and spreading hate literature against President Kennedy days before his assassination.

In this context, a politician who could articulate a New Right, conservative viewpoint while appearing likeable to the public quickly stood out. In the early 1960s, Ronald Reagan was a faded, B-list movie star and former corporate pitchman for General Electric. As Reagan became more active in politics, he honed his message during speaking engagements across the country, in the process becoming a nationally recognized conservative spokesman. At the time Reagan’s political star was rising, the Northeastern based, moderate wing of the Republican Party was self-destructing. Taking advantage of this weakness, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was able to wrest the party’s nomination for president in 1964.

During the presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan delivered a single speech on behalf of Senator Goldwater that catapulted him into the national political firmament. Entitled “A Time For Choosing,” Reagan presented his core beliefs to a ballroom filled with Southern California’s wealthiest conservatives: the need for vigilance against communism, doubt that government could solve an individual’s problems, opposition to taxes and regulations and support for state’s rights. As a former actor, Reagan connected on an emotional level with his audience. He was witty and likeable. Goldwater was encouraged to air the speech in a fundraising commercial, the broadcast of which raised more than one million dollars. Despite the efforts of Reagan and Goldwater, the 1964 presidential election was a Democratic landslide. President Lyndon Johnson carrying every state in the U.S. except those in the South and the state of Arizona. In California, Johnson received 1.2 million more votes than Goldwater, who had been successfully labeled an extremist.

Following the election, Reagan revised his theme of moral vigilance against communism to a demand for “law-and-order.” In the midst of confrontations between UC Berkeley students, campus police, and college administrators over the right to engage in political speech on campus property, candidate for California governor Reagan espoused the viewpoint that intellectual freedom came second to law-and-order. The California University system, he charged was dominated by “a minority of malcontents, beatniks, and filthy-speech advocates” and that students have a choice to “observe the rules or get out.” He demanded the resignation of UC chancellor Clark Kerr. Although Regan had never held elective office before running for governor, his message was embraced by the same California voters who would later become Richard Nixon’s “silent majority” of quiet, law-abiding citizens who were fed up with the antics of New Left radicals.

As the 1966 governor’s race approached, Governor Pat Brown misread the demographic shift in California. Northern California’s influence was diminished as white, Midwestern and Southern immigrants coming to Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County were attracted to Reagan’s message. On Election Day, Reagan beat Brown by almost 1 million votes, becoming California’s 33rd Governor.

Richard Nixon took advantage of Reagan’s new formulation of addressing “law-and-order” and state’s rights to win over moderate, yet unsettled voters in the South (also called Nixon’s “Southern strategy”) and the Midwest. This strategy helped Nixon finally win the presidency in 1968, and paved the way for Reagan in 1980.