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When the arguing abated, the Republicans had a platform that supported Reagan's principal views. It endorsed the Kemp-Roth bill for a 30% tax cut over three years; called for more nuclear power and complete decontrol of oil prices; denounced the SALT II treaty as "fatally flawed" and demanded "military superiority" over the Soviets; urged the restoration of capital punishment; and appealed for the return of voluntary, nondenominational prayer in schools. All in all, said Platform Committee Chairman John Tower, the document represents "a rightward move" in keeping with the increasing conservatism of the U.S.
To what extent Reagan controls the right-wing zealots in the G.O.P. will become clearer in the coming weeks, but his key aides were doing their best to play down the preconvention controversies. "A good fight or two might be helpful," said Campaign Manager Casey. Indeed, the more significant and surprising news is that the Republicans have by and large stopped sniping at each other. Richard Whitney, 60, a Reagan delegate who is a Colorado dairyman, declares: "We have to have all philosophies in the party to win. We are trying to embrace more people. We don't have much of that 'We won't compromise' attitude any more." Says William Simon, Treasury Secretary under President Gerald Ford and a likely prospect for high office in a Reagan Administration: "All of us are growing up and getting together."
So far Reagan has done much to set the unifying tone. Gone is the strident rhetoric of the past. Now he talks expansively of bringing people together. He told TIME, "People should properly look at a political party not as a club or a religion, but as a means for uniting people with a common viewpoint about how the Government should be run. I don't ask for written-in-blood pledges. I am arguing that the Republican Party comes closest today to representing what the majority of the people in this country want."
Reagan has instructed party leaders around the country to recruit as many volunteers as possible without regard for their viewpoints. Ideological purity is not the price of admission to party affairs. Last month Reagan met in Chicago with a number of Republican Governors, a group that has not generally supported his candidacy, and he assured them that he wanted to work with them. He also placated moderates by keeping Bill Brock as R.N.C. chairman. Traditionally the nominee puts his own man in the post, but Brock had won widespread support from conservatives and moderates alike for his successful efforts to broaden the party's base and elect more Republicans to state legislatures. Brock has had to relinquish some of his authority, but as long as he stays on the job, he symbolizes party unity.