Republican voting registration was at an all-time low, and yet 59 per cent of Americans described themselves as favoring conservative policies--whence Mr. Rusher's new book, making the argument for a nationwide third party. WFB: "Your point of view is more that of the mortician here, isn't it?, as regards the Republican Party." WAR: "Well. I don't know. I'm a bereaved member of the party, let's put it that way. There's no doubt that the party is for any practical purposes dead. If we conservatives don't bury the Republican Party, I'm afraid the Republican Party is going to bury us." ... PJB: "It seems to me that Governor Reagan, if he's going to run, has committed himself to the Republican Party?" WAR: "No, he hasn't." PJB: "--that Senator Goldwater and Senator Tower and Senator Brock and Senator Dole and Bill Simon and James Schlesinger and the economic conservatives who are half of this grand coalition are going to be within the Republican Party--" WAR: "Not all of them." PJB: "--in the summer of 1976, and that the only way for the conservative coalition to win in '76 in my judgment is to bring the social conservatives of the Democratic Party within the Republican ranks." A sparkling four-cornered exchange rich in ironies, given the failure of Mr. Rusher's third party in 1976, the success of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and Mr. Buchanan's jumping to a third party in 2000.