50 years since conservatives broke through in the Republican Party

Fifty years ago, the U.S. was in an unpredictable presidential election year. In 1972, President Richard Nixon emphasized a strong economy and adroit foreign policy. Faced by a disintegrating Democratic Party, he beat Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.) in an electoral tsunami: He won every state except Massachusetts and took the Electoral College 520-17. He was also the first Republican to sweep the South.

But on June 17, 1972, men connected to Nixon’s reelection campaign had broken into the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Office Building in Washington. They started a time-bomb ticking under the administration.

In October 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew had resigned, accused of tax evasion. For a replacement who could be confirmed by Congress, Nixon opted for long-term House Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Michigan, a likeable if limited politician — Lyndon Johnson remarked that Ford had played “too much football without a helmet.” He had begun to plan retirement, but accepted the nomination for vice president as “a nice conclusion” to his career.

Eight months after Ford was sworn in as vice president, Nixon resigned, facing impeachment and likely conviction over Watergate. Ford, having last won 118,027 votes in Michigan’s 5th District, was now the 38th U.S. president.

Ford was the ultimate accidental president. He inherited an administration mired in a toxic soup of conspiracy, criminality and executive overreach, the economy in its worst condition since the Great Depression, inflation in double figures and public trust shattered.

The Republicans were crushed in the 1974 midterm elections, less than three months into Ford’s presidency. They lost 48 seats in the House — including Ford’s former district in Michigan — to be left with just 144, and four Senate seats. Conservative........

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