How did social conservatives view Reagan when he was Governor?

[darklordoftech]

Did they like him, or did they view him as a divorced actor with conservative economic and foreign policy views?

[Vittorio]

Social conservatism as you and I know it, as an ideology with strictly constructed principles, is largely a product of the period after Reagan's governorship. California Republicans were anti-divorce when it suited them (such as when it served as justification for denying their votes to Nelson Rockefeller in the '64 primary) and blithely indifferent to it when it didn't (as when justifying their support of Reagan for Governor).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Social conservatism as you and I know it, as an ideology with strictly constructed principles, is largely a product of the period after Reagan's governorship. California Republicans were anti-divorce when it suited them (such as when it served as justification for denying their votes to Nelson Rockefeller in the '64 primary) and blithely indifferent to it when it didn't (as when justifying their support of Reagan for Governor).

Moreover, it's my understanding that by the time social conservatism did become an ideology unto itself, divorce wasn't really on its radar as An Issue anymore except insofar as it was a topic of debate within the various religious denominations that provided the Moral Majority's membership. I could be wrong about this, though.

[darklordoftech]

I wasn’t just asking about divorce. I also know that Reagan liberalized California’s abortion laws and tightened its gun laws, things that may have angered social conservatives.

[Vittorio]

I wasn’t just asking about divorce. I also know that Reagan liberalized California’s abortion laws and tightened its gun laws, things that may have angered social conservatives.

What passed for organized social conservatism at the time supported the Mulford Act, directed as it was against the Black Panthers.

[McNukes™ #NYCMMWasAHero]

I wasn’t just asking about divorce. I also know that Reagan liberalized California’s abortion laws and tightened its gun laws, things that may have angered social conservatives.

Social conservatism didn't really exist before Roe v. Wade, when the Supreme Court overruled every abortion ban in the entire US simultaneously at a time when over 25 states did not permit it. The backlash was initially based on the fact that it was anti-democratic. Few cared about the issue previously, but the backlash led to people becoming informed about why abortion shouldn't be legal. Once informed about why abortion should be illegal, people who opposed the Roe v. Wade decision effectively founded the pro-life movement, and thus modern social conservatism was born.

I think it had more or less existed as a Catholic trend within the Democratic Party which subsided under Kennedy prior to this, but it was more about opposition to contraceptives and divorce.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I wasn’t just asking about divorce. I also know that Reagan liberalized California’s abortion laws and tightened its gun laws, things that may have angered social conservatives.

Social conservatism didn't really exist before Roe v. Wade, when the Supreme Court overruled every abortion ban in the entire US simultaneously at a time when over 25 states did not permit it. The backlash was initially based on the fact that it was anti-democratic. Few cared about the issue previously, but the backlash led to people becoming informed about why abortion shouldn't be legal. Once informed about why abortion should be illegal, people who opposed the Roe v. Wade decision effectively founded the pro-life movement, and thus modern social conservatism was born.

Only some of this is true.

[F. Joe Haydn]

They probably viewed him positively, since one of his main things was bashing the Berkeley student protesters against the Vietnam War. To the extent that social conservatives existed at that point in time, it was in opposition to young hippies like the Berkeley kids who they saw as disrupting the status quo.