Why didn't watergate sink the GOP long term, or even medium term?

[Matty]

Yes ford lost in 76, but it was very close and 4 years later republicans were swept into office.

Why didn't watergate damage the republican brand for at least a decade?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Reagan's charisma sure didn't hurt. Carter was also something of a lousy campaigner from what I understand. He was up 56-29 (!) in polls immediately after the RNC, but Ford was able to close the gap quickly.

[The_Doctor]

The forces pushing realignment were greater than the one that ended Nixon's presidency. Reagan came from the conservative wing while Nixon was a hold over of the establishment moderate wing. The more conservative Republicans were largely unscathed by Watergate.

Nixon's and Ford's presidency ended the long grip of moderate Republicans on the party dating from 1944.

[136or142]

Watergate and the concurrent Church Hearings into abuses by the CIA both had the perverse effect on the Democrats of making government less trusted and less popular, with, in the end, making the anti government Republican Ronald Reagan more popular.

I know some Republicans of the day dispute that,  but there has actually been considerable scholarly research into the impact Watergate and the Church Hearings had on public sentiment towards government and there is a great deal of unanimity that the main beneficiary was the anti government Republicans.

The inability of President Carter to control inflation and the blame placed on the Federal Reserve for this by Milton Friedman also fed into all of that.

[OSR stands with Israel]

On the presidential bid Reagan 1976 Republican bid probably kept  the Republican party from losing big that year , and once Ford lost there was nobody in the Republican Party to stop Reagan from winning the nomination.

Then the main thing is in 1980 you had double digit unemployment , double digit inflation, 20+% interest rates, the Iran hostage crises , and communism seemingly on the rise was on people's minds way more then watergate and that resulted in Reagan winning easily.


In congressional level it did hurt them medium term as the 1974 midterm wipeout gave the Democrats control of the house for another 20 years.

[136or142]

On the presidential bid Reagan 1976 Republican bid probably kept  the Republican party from losing big that year , and once Ford lost there was nobody in the Republican Party to stop Reagan from winning the nomination.

Then the main thing is in 1980 you had double digit unemployment , double digit inflation, 20+% interest rates, the Iran hostage crises , and communism seemingly on the rise was on people's minds way more then watergate and that resulted in Reagan winning easily.


In congressional level it did hurt them medium term as the 1974 midterm wipeout gave the Democrats control of the house for another 20 years.

Ford benefited in 1976 from the relatively strong economy that year as well as the perception that Jimmy Carter was a little 'too strange' to be President.

[SingingAnalyst]

The GOP was hurt in the short term; the elections of '74 and '76, as well as a record low 21% identifying as Republicans in 1975. However, I believe the fact that the GOP disavowed Nixon for a time, helped, as it showed them putting morality over party (this was a time when the GOP was probably viewed as the "more moral" of the two parties).

[Lincoln Republican]

Because Jimmy Carter was a failed President and Ronald Reagan was a charismatic leader who offered the American people hope and confidence for the future.

[mieastwick]

What surprised me far more back in the day was how quickly the congressional GOP recovered its luster after the disaster of 2008, which ought to have discredited the GOP for a decade if we're going solely by its gravity.

[Del Tachi]

Because people weren't as hyperpartisan back in the 1970s.

Watergate was an indictment against Nixon's character, not the character of the entire Republican Party.

[RINO Tom]

Because people weren't as hyperpartisan back in the 1970s.

Watergate was an indictment against Nixon's character, not the character of the entire Republican Party.

What I was going to say.  Watergate immortalized Nixon as "a crook" (LOL), it was all about him.  Sure, his VP who pardoned him might have lost "re"-election because of it, but I don't think people saw emerging Southern Republicans or Republicans out West or even most Northeastern "establishment" Republicans running for downballot things as having much to do with the whole fiasco.

[darklordoftech]

Watergate was an indictment against Nixon's character, not the character of the entire Republican Party.

Correct. At the time of Watergate, Reagan was in California, not Washington. Watergate was a crime commited by Nixon and his administration. There's no way that the Governor of California would be involved.

[Technocracy Timmy]

Another factor here is that when you undermine trust in government, it becomes much easier to usher in a realignment based around the notion that government is not the answer to our problems, but that government itself is the problem.

[Pericles]

The Republicans were hurt in the 1974 midterms and the 1976 election by Watergate. However, Watergate ultimately blew a major hole through the idea of government as a force for good that could be trusted, and that enabled Ronald Reagan to be elected in 1980 promising to shrink government, which was no longer trusted by the American people, because of, among other factors, Watergate.

[Medal506]

Same reason Obamacare didn't sink the democrats long term.

[darklordoftech]

Obamacare didn't sink the democrats long term.

Tell that to 2010, 2014, and 2016.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Because Ford pardoned Nixon and Carter was a failure.

[Skill and Chance]

Once the people involved in a scandal are out of office, everyone moves on to other issues.  Did anyone vote based on Monica Lewinsky in 2002?  Were it not for an extreme event in the electoral college, Democrats would have won the presidency just 8 years after Andrew Johnson, and the won a House majority just 6 years after him.

[KingSweden]

Watergate and the concurrent Church Hearings into abuses by the CIA both had the perverse effect on the Democrats of making government less trusted and less popular, with, in the end, making the anti government Republican Ronald Reagan more popular.

I know some Republicans of the day dispute that,  but there has actually been considerable scholarly research into the impact Watergate and the Church Hearings had on public sentiment towards government and there is a great deal of unanimity that the main beneficiary was the anti government Republicans.

The inability of President Carter to control inflation and the blame placed on the Federal Reserve for this by Milton Friedman also fed into all of that.

I've never seen this case presented before but it does make sense. Thank you for sharing this.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Because the Vietnam era sank 4 of best Democrats out there: MLK, Malcolm X, RFK and JFK. But the only 2 that the conservative movement really cared about were RFK and MLK who would have pernamently set the Democrats in power.

And the conservative movement wanted the Reagan Revolution.  But the Liberal Era will be back in 2018.

[Beet]

Why would it? Nixon wasn't very active after 1974.

[Sumner 1868]

Because the Vietnam era sank 4 of best Democrats out there: MLK, Malcolm X, RFK and JFK. But the only 2 that the conservative movement really cared about were RFK and MLK who would have pernamently set the Democrats in power.

And the conservative movement wanted the Reagan Revolution.  But the Liberal Era will be back in 2018.

Malcom X was not a Democrat - far from it as we can see in his "Ballot or the Bullet" speech. Nor was King, who moved from offically nonpartisan into vauge socialism at end of his life.

'Nam was largely JFK's fault.

RFK was trailing Nixon even worse than McCarthy in 1968.

[vanguard96]

Because people weren't as hyperpartisan back in the 1970s.

Watergate was an indictment against Nixon's character, not the character of the entire Republican Party.

Yes, ultimately it was his vanity, paranoia, and scruples that were on trial. It is telling on how weak Carter was that even with the pardon and the baggage from Nixon's Presidency he did not win convincingly in '76 over Ford.