PALM DESERT — They got here to the baking desert to honor certainly one of their very own, a political skilled, a legend and a throwback to a time when gatherings like this one — a companionable meeting of Republicans, Democrats and the odd newspaper columnist — weren’t such a uncommon and noteworthy factor.
They got here to bid a final farewell to Stuart Spencer, who died in January at age 97.
They got here to Palm Desert on a 98-degree spring day to do the issues that political professionals do after they collect: drink and snigger and swap tales of campaigns and elections previous.
And so they confirmed, with their affection and goodwill and mutual regard, how a lot the world, and the world of politics, have modified.
“That is how politics was,” Democrat Harvey Englander mentioned after sidling as much as Republican Joel Fox. The 2 met via their work with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., a spawn of the Proposition 13 taxpayer revolt, circa 1978.
“We had completely different views of how authorities ought to work,” Englander mentioned as Fox nodded his assent. “However we agreed authorities ought to work.”
Spencer was a marketing campaign strategist and grasp tactician who helped usher into workplace generations of GOP leaders, foremost amongst them Ronald Reagan. The previous president and California governor was a Hollywood has-been till Spencer got here alongside and turned him into one thing compelling and new, one thing they referred to as a “citizen-politician.”
Hanging, inevitably, over the weekend’s celebration was the present occupant of the Oval Workplace, a boiling black cloud in comparison with the radiant and sunshiny Reagan. Spencer was no fan of Donald Trump, and he let or not it’s identified.
“A demagogue and opportunist,” he referred to as him, chafing, specifically, at Trump’s comparisons of himself to Reagan.
“He could be sick,” Spencer mentioned, guessing the recoil the nation’s fortieth president would have had if he’d witnessed the crass and corrupt habits of the forty fifth and forty seventh one.
A lot of these on the weekend occasion are equally out of step with in the present day’s Republican Social gathering and, particularly, Trump’s bomb-the-opposition-to-rubble strategy to politics. However most most popular to not specific these sentiments for the file.
George Steffes, who served as Reagan’s legislative director in Sacramento, allowed as how the loudly and proudly uncouth Trump was “180 levels” from the politely mannered Reagan. In 5 years, Steffes mentioned, he by no means as soon as heard the governor increase his voice, belittle an individual or “deal with a human being with something however respect.”
Fox, with a seeming contact of wounded pleasure, recommended Trump might use “some pushback from among the ‘previous pondering’ of the Stu Spencer/Ronald Reagan period.”
A flag flown over the U.S. Capitol in Spencer’s honor was displayed at his memorial celebration, together with White Home schedules from the 1984 marketing campaign.
(H.D. Palmer)
Behind them, enjoying on a big-screen TV, have been photos from Spencer’s filled-to-the-bursting life.
Previous black-and-white snapshots — an apple-cheeked Navy sailor, a little bit boy — alternated with pictures of Spencer smiling alongside Reagan and President Ford, standing with Dick Cheney and George H.W. Bush, showing subsequent to Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Wilson, a spry 91, was among the many 150 or so who turned out to recollect Spencer. He was given a spot of honor, seated together with his spouse, Gayle, instantly in entrance of the rostrum.)
In a quick presentation, Spencer’s son, Steve, remembered his father as somebody who emphasised caring and compassion, in addition to laborious work and the significance of holding quick to 1’s rules. “Pop’s phrase,” he mentioned, “was gold.”
Spencer’s grandson, Sam, a Republican political marketing consultant in Washington, choked up as he recounted how “Papa Stu” not solely helped make historical past however by no means stinted on his household, driving 4 hours to attend Sam’s 45-minute soccer video games and staying up nicely previous bedtime to get after-action stories on his grandson’s campaigns.
Stu Spencer, he mentioned, was a voracious reader and owned “one of many biggest political minds in historical past.”
Outdoors the golf resort, a stiff wind kicked up, ruffling the palm timber and sending small waves throughout a water hazard on the 18th inexperienced — an apparent metaphor for these blustery and unsettled occasions.
Fred Karger first met Spencer in 1976 when his accomplice, Invoice Roberts, employed Karger to work on an unsuccessful U.S. Senate marketing campaign. (In 2012, Karger made historical past as the primary out homosexual major-party candidate to run for president.)
He not acknowledges the political celebration he devoted his life to. “It’s the Trump-publican Social gathering,” Karger mentioned. “It’s not the Republican Social gathering.”
However politics are cyclical, he went on, and absolutely Trump and his MAGA motion will run their course and the GOP will return to the times when Reagan’s optimism and Spencer’s less-hateful marketing campaign fashion return to style.
His gripped his white wine like a potion, delivering hope. “Don’t you suppose?”
