Unintended Consequences

The Aftermath that the Teacher Never Taught

       
Source: NPR All Things Considered - March 24, 2008

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Adam Clymer: "...it helps divide United States...and  revitalized conservative movement which helped Ronald Reagan and gave him a senate with a majority which enable him to get things done and its tactics live on today."

Rise of the Right

The Rise of the Right allowed for 12 years of Republican Presidency after Carter.

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The New Right, God-fathered by Richard. A. Viguerie, said in 2006,"It was a big part of our agenda. If there was only one issue more than any other that gave impetus and unity to the conservative movement, it was the Panama Canal Issue."

 Paul Laxalt (Reagan's closest ally) said, "This is the best political issue that could be handed to a party in recent years. Conservatives will control the party as a result of the Panama Canal. Its like manna from heaven. I can't think of any other issue that better unites grass roots conservatives than the canal."  





Gary Jarmin, legislative director of American Conservative Union said, "Conservatives see this as a great opportunity to take control of the Republican Party. We should control it because we are the dominant element of the party and without it would die."
"Conservatives came to power in the United States for a whole variety of reasons...was really the generous decision by the four presidents who preceded Reagan to give up the Panama Canal..."  -  Adam Clymer- NYTimes Washington Correspondent

Partisanship in Current Politics

"While the canal itself no longer divides Panama,  its heritages help divide the United States." - Adam Clymer - NYTimes Washington Correspondent

     

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"An aspect of the Senate’s ratification of the Panama Canal Treaty (January-April 1978) was that the vote was not along partisan lines to the extent that many issues are today."
    - Email interview with Ambler H. Moss, Jr.


"The uproar over the Canal episode foreshadowed perennial partisan attacks  over intense emotional issues from abortion to gun control to same sex-marriage.The Panama Canal no longer divides Panama. But the fissures it opened thirty years ago have widened; they divide the United States."
     - Adam Clymer- NYTimes Washington Correspondent
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