Yes, the parties did not really become all that divided on social issues until after the Roe V Wade ruling, and even then it took a number of years. There was once a thing known as 'Planned Parenthood Republicans.' (George H W Bush was a supporter for a while.)
https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a16149/planned-parenthood-republicans/
I believe Jimmy Carter was actually more anti abortion than Gerald Ford was.
Not only was there a liberal Republican wing especially in the northeast (Senator Jacob Javits for instance, even Spiro Agnew was known as a fairly liberal Republican until he remade himself into a joke as Nixon's attack dog) but there is some argument that Reagan lost the nomination to Ford at the convention by trying to court liberal Republicans with his Vice Presidential selection. There is so much revisionist history with Reagan and subsequent Republicans designed to put conservatives in a better light, that I don't know how true that argument actually is.
It played a role in the defection of the Mississippi delegation. Reagan had promised to pick Senator Richard Schweiker (R-PA) as his Vice Presidential candidate, but this alienated many Southerners because he was regarded as a "liberal" Republican, who ironically was also "pro-gun" and there is actually a point in the news coverage in 1968 where NBC credits "gun clubs" with Schweiker's Senate victory. What most likely pissed off the South was his position on the war and his vote against Nixon two failed Supreme Court Nominees:
I just read Len Garment's book 'In Search of Deep Throat' in which he explains why he thought it was John Sears.
Sears, described as a 'brilliant political tactician' is said to have come up with the choice of Richard Schwieker. There were two things here:
1.The Reagan campaign was essentially 'throwing a Hail Mary' because they knew they were going to lose the nomination based on the delegate count. So, they thought a 'balanced ticket' might work.
2.They were hoping that by announcing Reagan's Vice Presidential selection before the Presidential vote, that they could force, through procedural motions to get Ford to name his Vice Presidential selection before the Presidential nomination vote. They hoped that the division caused to Ford's support would be greater than any division in their support.
Sears is described as initially a young Kennedy supporter who was in search of the mythical perfect centrist candidate. He thought he found it in Nixon but became disillusioned very early on and left in 1969. It's possible that Sears may have been personally pushing to find the centrist candidate through Reagan via the 'balanced ticket' approach.
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In regards to the book itself, though obviously we now know that Mark Felt was Deep Throat there were a couple things that I found odd.
1.Garment mentions that Bernstein also had a secret source who had been in the government and Garment correctly figured out that person was Sears. I'd surprised with this because Sears was long gone from the Nixon Administration by then (though he visited regularly, especially the Old Executive Office building.) I would have thought with Watergate it would have been the case of "those who know aren't talking, and those who talk don't really know anything" but obviously Sears was told.
Garment mentions that Woodward and Bernstein had separate lists of (sometimes overlapping) off the record contacts, and he contended that Deep Throat was one of those who overlapped.
I would have thought this, not just because the Watergate Conspirators would have obvious reasons to stay silent, but because I thought that with Sears finding out, that would have made him an accessory to Watergate. I'm not a lawyer, so am I wrong here? Garment and Sears are both lawyers.
2.I read a couple reviews and I thought it was odd that nobody mentioned the one obvious hole in Garment's theory: the anonymous source to Bernstein and Deep Throat had completely different Modus Operandi. Deep Throat's was meeting in secret and only confirming information (with a couple exceptions), Sears was to talk freely over the phone and tell what he knew.
I think it's clear it shows what marketing can do that people were consumed for years over the identity of Deep Throat but nobody seemed interest in finding out who Bernstein's secret source was (or most of any of the other secret sources. I think there was also some interest in the major female source. Her name has since come out, I think she's an accountant.)
