Reagan Launches Stern Attack on ‘Liberal’ Foes : Criticism of Dukakis Outweighs Praise for Bush as President’s Speech Sets Tone for Convention

President Reagan, arriving in New Orleans Sunday for a nostalgic political farewell to the party he twice led to the White House, set the tone for this week’s Republican National Convention with a blistering attack on Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis and the “liberal, liberal, liberal” policies of the Democrats.

Reagan, addressing a large and boisterous throng on the eve of the convention’s official opening today, accused Dukakis of conducting a “stealth candidacy” and carrying on a “masquerade” to hide left-wing policies out of step with the American public.

The President, who entered the New Orleans Convention Center in a parade that included Mardi Gras-style floats and Ellie the Elephant, was met by cheers of “Four More Years” and placards promoting “Reagan for VP in ’88.”

He began his political swan song with a look backward at an eight-year Administration he said was marked by unprecedented peace and plenty. “This isn’t a campaign, it’s a crusade, a crusade for America’s future. And this too: We aren’t just good conservative managers, we are the keepers of the flame, the protectors of the dream.”

He said “future generations will dishonor us if now in a moment of sudden folly we throw it all away. . . . We must hold to this moment of hope--and I tell you with every ounce of energy and every fiber of my being, only electing George Bush President of the United States can accomplish that.”

But the speech was more an attack on the Democrats than a testimonial to Bush, his vice president and heir-presumptive. He praised Bush by name six times, but he sneered the word “liberal” or “liberalism” 22 times in a 25-minute address.

The harsh tone of Reagan’s speech was leavened by his good-natured delivery and wistful allusions to several of his favorite themes--morning in America, peace through strength, the shining city on the hill.

But Reagan’s attack on Dukakis and the Democrats will allow Bush to adopt a more positive, conciliatory and forward-looking tone in his acceptance speech Thursday night, aides said.

In his own speech, Reagan made an explicit appeal to conservative Democrats who defected to the GOP in large numbers in 1980 and 1984 to provide the Republican margin of victory. He said rank-and-file Democrats, along with independents, hold the balance in this year’s presidential contest.

“Their votes--especially those of traditional Democrats--is the key battleground,” Reagan said. “And here we have an advantage: because on economic, social and foreign policy issues those conservative-minded Democrats agree with us.”

The President said his message to these “Reagan Democrats” is that their “once-proud party of hope and affirmation has become dominated at the top by strident liberalism and negativism. The party of ‘yes’ has become the party of ‘no.’ ”

At the beginning of the Reagan address, a brief scuffle broke out between gay protesters and a number of anti-gay men in the convention center crowd. Morris Kight, a Los Angeles gay rights activist, said members of the group were attacked and their signs destroyed before the Secret Service intervened and hustled the protesters out of the hall. Police booked five of the 15 protesters for disturbing the peace.

Women Carry ERA Signs

Also, a small number of women carrying signs supporting passage of the equal rights amendment, which Reagan opposes, marched quietly through the convention center.

Reagan, who spoke on a riverboat-style stage decorated with huge plaster busts of Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower and himself, said the nation faces a stark choice in 1988.

“A choice between, on the one hand, the policies of limited government, economic growth, a strong defense and a firm foreign policy and, on the other hand, policies of tax and spend, economic stagnation, international weakness and accommodation, and always, always, Blame America First,” Reagan said. “Yes, the choice this year is between the policies of liberalism or the policies of America’s political mainstream.”

Reagan said the Republicans’ mission is “to prove to the liberal leadership of the other party, starting here, starting now, your attempt to hide your stand on the issues isn’t going to work. The masquerade is over. The stealth candidacy has to come out from cover. It’s time to talk issues; to use the dreaded ‘L’ word; to say the policies of our opposition and the congressional leadership of his party are liberal, liberal, liberal.”

He added that after the American people learn the differences between the two candidates and the two parties, it will be the Democrats that the voters “take out behind the barn.”