Signs in 1976

The 2002 movie Signs is about a minister, Graham Hess, played by Mel Gibson, who looses his faith when his wife dies in an automobile accident for apparently no reason. The story is about how this minister comes to see a greater, transcendent purpose in the loss of his wife. In the course of the movie the character Hess lays out two views of the world, when lights from UFOs, presaging an invasion, appear over Mexico City:

"People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign ... evidence that there is someone up there watching out for them.

Group number two sees it just as pure lucky, happy turn of chance. I'm sure that the people in group number two are looking at those 14 lights in a very suspicious way. For them, this situation is a 50/50. It could be bad. It could be good. But deep down they feel that whatever happens ... they're on their own. That fills them with fear. Yeah. There are those people."

But there's a whole lot of people in group number one and they see those 14 lights and they're looking at a miracle. And deep down they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. And what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs or sees miracles? Or do you believe people just get lucky? Or look at the question this way. Is it possible that there are no coincidences?"

For Reagan Conservatives (Is there another variety?), Craig Shirley's new book Reagan's Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started it All, offers powerful evidence for people in group number one - people who believe "that there are no coincidences."

For most Reagan supporters, 1976 was a devastating year. Gerald Ford had squeaked by Ronald Reagan in the most contested Republican nomination process in contemporary memory to win the Republican nomination. Ford did not formally secure the nomination during the roll call of states at the convention until the West Virginia delegation, the second-to-last state in alphabetical order, cast their vote. Even worse, the conventional wisdom foresaw the marginalization of the Republican Party. Eric Sevareid, in an editorial piece on CBS News, argued that Republican Conservatives were killing the election prospects of Republicans. Others predicted that Republicans would soon go the way of the Whig Party from which they arose just prior to the American Civil War. The New York Times happily concluded that, "Mr. Reagan presumably grows too old to run again..." Jimmy Carter, who camouflaged himself in Conservative vocabulary to hide the soul of a Liberal, had just been elected president. It just doesn't get any worse for Reagan Republicans.

Go To Page: 1 2 3