In early February, conservative activists gathered here at the 1977 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to discuss the condition of conservatism and to map conservative strategy for the next four years. Speaker after speaker pointed to a battery of polls showing that a majority of Americans consider themselves conservative. Yet at the same time, they admitted, this national conservative impulse has not been translated into successful political action. Many of the conservative spokesmen at CPAC agreed with Ronald Reagan that the Republican Party has failed to communicate a coherent statement of conservative principles to the American people and should be reformed. Others, however, among them NR Publisher William Rusher, argued that the problem is the Republican Party itself. Because the GOP must compromise with its liberals, said Rusher, it can never function effectively as a conservative vehicle.
Nevertheless, despite strong residual third-party sentiment, conservative activist leaders such as Senator Jesse Helms, Representative Phil Crane, former Senator Jim Buckley, and Reagan himself spoke against breakaway attempts. Referring to what he called “The New Republican Party,” Reagan said: “Yes, conservatism is the majority line. But I believe that political success of the principles we believe in can best be achieved in the Republican Party. I believe the Republican Party can and should provide the political mechanism through which the goals of Americans can be achieved. It makes more sense to build on that grouping than to break it up and start over again. Rather than a third party we can have a new first party made up of people who share our principles.”
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