Congressman Kemp’s Playbook

WHEN Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976-with sizable Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress-plenty of pundits speculated about Republicans as an endangered species. A writer for the New York Times contemplated the GOP’s “extinction.” Robert Novak commented on “the long descent of the Republican Party into irrelevance, defeat, and perhaps eventual disappearance.”

Four years later, of course, Americans tossed out Carter and elected Ronald Reagan.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

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Presidential Election

WHEN Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976-with sizable Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress-plenty of pundits speculated about Republicans as an endangered species. A writer for the New York Times contemplated the GOP’s “extinction.” Robert Novak commented on “the long descent of the Republican Party into irrelevance, defeat, and perhaps eventual disappearance.”

Four years later, of course, Americans tossed out Carter and elected Ronald Reagan.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.