The Right Moment Ronald Reagans First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics

Ronald Reagan’s first great victory, in the 1966 California governor’s race, seemed to come from nowhere and has long since confounded his critics. Just two years earlier, when Barry Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson by a landslide, the conservative movement was pronounced dead. In California, Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown was celebrated as the “Giant Killer” for his 1962 victory over Richard Nixon. From civil rights, to building the modern California system of higher education, to reinventing the state’s infrastructure, to a vast expansion of the welfare state, Brown’s liberal agenda reigned supreme. Yet he soon found himself struggling with forces no one fully grasped, and in 1966, political neophyte Reagan trounced Brown by almost a million votes.

Reagan’s stunning win over Brown is one of the pivotal stories of American political history. It marked not only the coming-of-age of the conservative movement, but also the first serious blow to modern liberalism. The campaign was run amidst the drama of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, terrible riots in Watts, and the first anti-Vietnam War protests by the New Left. It featured cameo appearances by Mario Savio, Ed Meese, California Speaker Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh, and tough-as-nails Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker. Beneath its tumultuous surface a grassroots conservative movement swelled powerfully. A group that had once been dismissed as little more than paranoid John Birchers suddenly attracted a wide following for a more mainstream version of its message, and Reagan deftly rode the wave, moving from harsh anticommunism to a more general critique of the breakdown of social order and the failure of the welfare state. Millions of ordinary Californians heeded his call.

Drawing on scores of oral history interviews, thousands of archival documents, and many personal interviews with participants, Matthew Dallek charts the rise of one great politician, the demise of another, and the clash of two diametrically opposing worldviews. He offers a fascinating new portrait of the 1960s that is far more complicated than our collective memory of that decade. The New Left activists were offset by an equally impassioned group on the other side. For every SDS organizer there was a John Birch activist; for every civil rights marcher there was an anticommunist rally-goer; for every antiwar protester there were several more who sympathized with American aims in Southeast Asia. Dallek’s compelling history offers an important reminder that the rise of Ronald Reagan and the conservatives may be the most lasting legacy of that discordant time.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great book on important story
Matthew Dallek’s account of Reagan’s victory in California’s gubernatorial race of 1966 is a page turner. People interested in political history will learn much about Reagan’s character and about the shortcomings of liberalism in the sixties. Great book.

4 Stars Important Book
The Book “The Right Moment” by Matthew Dallek is an important piece of balanced research into the 1966 campaign for Governor of California. The race chronicles one conservative (actor turned politician) verse an old guard liberal who dominated California politics for the last eight years named Pat “The Giant Killer” Brown.

This book makes a few very important cases. One being Reagan benifited from the changing trends in politics nationally as well as in California. There is no doubt there is truth in that but it is also important to note that Reagan did what no other modern conservative had done and that is win big. Dallek understands that it was Reagan’s skill plus the right times which brought about a national change. Riots, Vietnam, and the failings of the Great Society turned America into a nation ripe for political change. Reagan was the man who lead the revolution from California and eventually ending with the demise of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Dallek also understands what many authors do not and that is Reagan ran a mainstream conservative campaign from California on into the White House.

It is also important to note that this book chronicles the life, campaigns, and ambition of Pat Brown who was a very able politician who knocked off former Vice President Richard Nixon in 62 who challenged Brown’s hold on Sacramento.

Much of the problem with Brown was that he underestimated Reagan (which would not be the last time an incumbent did that) and failed to quell the anarchy in Watts and Berkley.

If you enjoy studying Ca politics, political campaigns, or political history this book is very valuable and brings out a lot of new information on the 66 Governor’s race. Another strong quality is the balanced approach “The Right Moment” offers and its obviously well researched. I believe more could have easily been written about the 66 race.

5 Stars RONALD REAGAN’S FIRST POLITICAL VICTORY
Ronald Reagan’s speech in favor of Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign was the starting point of his political career. His successful campaign for governor of California, against incumbent Pat Brown, was the start of the conservative movement.

His ability to bring together the Birch society members, the conservative democrats, Republican moderates and other conservatives proved that Reagan was a political genius. Many believed that a B movie actor, former Roosevelt democrat, GE pitchman, and former union member could never be considered a serious political campaigner. How wrong they were !

Matthew Dallek, in this wonderfully written account goes to great length to describe all the events surrounding that first campaign, the race riots (Watts), the student uprising at Berkeley, the divisions within both the democratic and conservative parties, and all the characters who were directly involved in the campaign. He is fair and allows the reader to really understand how the conservative movement in America really started with Reagan’s first successful run in California.

He also tells us that Reagan became a true hero and political mentor to many politicians, as is the case of the current Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzeneger. Both men had many different political beliefs, but they both had great personal charisma. Their foundations are very similar.

This is a great book with many details. Highly recommended and very enjoyable to read.

5 Stars Exceeded expectations–a great read
Not being a fan of the usual election campaign books, I took this up with low expectations. I just wanted to know something about Ronald Reagan’s first campaign for governor. I also suspected that it would be something of a hatchet job on RR. To my pleasant surprise, Matthew Dallek has produced an engaging–even exciting–narrative that is very well balanced. Though he does tend to laud the “responsible liberalism” of Edmund “Pat” Brown, the Democratic incumbent that Reagan unseated, he also fairly portrays the new conservatism and “Creative Society” philosophy of Ronald Reagan and his supporters. I highly recommend this work as essential for understanding the beginnings of the Reagan Revolution. After this, a good read that bookends the subject is John Ehrman’s ‘The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan.’

4 Stars Excellent Information
The Right Moment details the governor’s race in 1966 with Pat Brown (the incumbent) against a political newcomer, one Ronald Reagan. I thoroughly enjoyed this book for one major fact: It wasn’t all about Reagan.

Writing books about Reagan is a cottage industry, and most of them, while not bad, rarely cover new territory. (”God and Reagan” by Paul Kengor being one of the few recent exceptions.) I started this book expecting it to be another cheerleading Reagan-was-great gloss-over.

Thankfully, it’s anything but. While it does detail Reagan’s ascendancy in the conservative movement (and, not incidentally, his discarding of his liberal past) and his subsequent race for the governorship, it is more about California politics in general and the disintegration of Pat Brown’s stewardship.

It has what every election book has: the personality profiles of the political bosses, the attempts of primary challengers to knock out the inevitable winner, the gaffes and “defining” moments that seem ridiculously banal thirty years hence; and the culminating victory.

There are only two disappointments. One is there is very little detailing the mixing of Hollywood and California politics. Many believe that Reagan was the first, and he was the most important. However, George Murphy (”a song-and-dance man”) became a hard-right senator before Reagan even “converted” to politics, and he gets scant mention. And Helen Gahagan is ignored as well. This isn’t a book about Hollywood and politics, but it was an important enough phenomenon it might have been given a bit more consideration.

The other miss is the “election roundup” common in books of this type; I like them. I would have been interested to know where in California he had pulled his support–both geographically and demographically. There’s a little bit at the end but not much.

Thankfully, one thing that is left out is the expected “and this was the start of something big” nonsense. While true, it could degenerate into a love feast with the same platitudes you read in other Reagan books. There is no such section in this book, which increases its quality.

People might dismiss this book as a Reagan book, and in reality it’s not. It is an excellent portal into a small fraction of a very influential movement.

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