User blog comment:YNot1989/New ATL (Reagan in 1960)/@comment-899576-20090717001141

I am aware of this, but the idea of this timeline is that Reagan in 60' decides that the Democrats need to go back to their roots as the conservative party, instead of jumping ship to the Republicans which still had a significant liberal sect. Reagan had been a big player for GE for many years as well after his time as an actor and was notorious for his politically charged speeches at GE plants. He endorsed Eisenhower in 52' when he was president of SAG. He was very active in settling labor disputes while with GE and SAG and reported possible communists to the FBI in the 50s. If he chose to their would be a slim chance that he could have successfully ran for President in 1960. But I digress. What I need is a way in; a plausible situation in which Reagan would run as a conservative democrat in 1960 against Nixon and win. The idea of this timeline is to switch the presidencies and ultimately the paradigms set by Reagan and JFK.