Era of Reagan-Carter Government-Bashing Ending : Next President Sure to Be an ‘Insider’

An era is ending. A great rushing tide of contemporary politics has gone slack.

Say goodby to government-bashing. No more us-versus-them scapegoating of Washington as the source of America’s problems. The sun is about to shine more sweetly inside the Beltway.

With the arrival of George Bush in New Orleans today to claim the GOP presidential nomination, both political parties will be under control of men who believe in government, who believe that a program can solve a problem, two candidates who are downright proud to call themselves insiders .

Anti-Washington Bent

For better or worse, the anti-Washington bent that has shaped the last two American presidencies, Ronald Reagan’s and Jimmy Carter’s, now gives way to a campaign over which would-be successor, Bush or Michael S. Dukakis, should be entrusted to make the place work.

Lillian B. Hodges, a Republican delegate, typifies the change. When a successive tornado and flood devastated her hometown of West Memphis, Ark., in 1987, destroying the houses of five relatives, the community warmed up to Washington. It needed help.

Now the people of West Memphis, Hodges said, are comfortable with asking. “At home, I can hear people saying drugs are a major problem, child care is a major issue . . . . They’re interested in making government more effective.”

In fact, the clamor for government action on the issues of child care and drugs is as loud and insistent on the GOP convention floor here as it was last month at the Democratic convention in Atlanta.

The Republican platform, for instance, provides a lengthy statement advocating, among other things, a tax credit to help families meet their child-care costs.

Needs of Changing Times

“I never would have been in favor of child care (programs), but we have to meet the needs of changing times,” explained Marilyn Thayer, a staunchly conservative New Orleans woman who headed the platform committee on family issues.

William Hudnut, the GOP mayor of Indianapolis, called it a new era. “There are cycles in American politics. We’re coming to the end of a cycle of limited government.”

He added: “People in cities basically feel they’ve been abandoned.”

Hudnut’s tone was indistinguishable from that of New Orleans Democratic Mayor Sidney Barthelemy. He welcomed the Republicans to town with a speech to the convention: “We need help from the federal government in fighting drugs . . . . We also hope you will push for a greater local and federal government partnership.”

Greg Schneiders is a Democratic political consultant who was President Carter’s media adviser and campaign strategist. “Clearly, there are a number of people who were less than enthralled with the Carter Administration. And, increasingly, now there is concern about Reagan’s lack of involvement and control of events.

Voters Look for Competence

“Taken together, those two experiences are causing voters to look for competence, for someone to run the thing,” he said.

Some have been waiting for a long time for the shift.

It was seven years ago, shortly after Reagan took office, that New York Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said: “Those who now denigrate (government), and even despise it, will sooner or later find themselves turning to it in necessity, even desperation.”

Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson, a Republican, agrees. “I don’t think you can sustain a political party forever on the fervor of being ‘anti.’ You have to be for something. People want to achieve . . . you have to be for things.”

Staff writers David Lauter, Keith Love, Patt Morrison, Bob Secter and Henry Weinstein contributed to this story.