Ford's fairly effective theme, during the campaign's closing ten days, of warning that Democrats mean higher taxes and, therefore, lower paychecks is part of the answer. But beyond that, Republicans must attempt what Ford did not, to convince workingmen that the GOP is not their economic enemy at the rudimentary level of collective bargaining. Or, put another way: while Republicans are death on heavy government spending, high taxes, and "particularly" profligate welfare outlays, they are even-handed neutrals in the war between management and labor.

This involves a renewed pursuit of an alliance with some elements of organized labor begun by that tainted master politician, Richard M. Nixon, and abandoned after his fall. Yet, the backbone of the party, the small-town merchants and manufacturers, who even now are not ashamed to be called Republicans, oppose any such courtship.

The fact that the labor movement is split irreconcilably on key questions of national defense and international affairs is lost on the country-club Republican. In his heart he feels that the real threat to his nation comes not from Leonid Brezhnev but from George Meany. In particular, that surviving fraction in the House of Representatives is emotionally more anti-labor than anti-Communist.

Source: Novak, Robert D. Fiasco '76. National Review. p. 1398. December 24, 1976.