HOUSTON — In his moving speech at the Republican Convention, former President Ronald Reagan told his fellow party members, "We can no longer judge each other on the basis of what we are, but must, instead, start finding out who we are. In America, our origins matter less than our destinations and that is what democracy is all about." And he described how he wanted to be remembered: "Whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts." This is not how George Bush will be remembered by anyone who attended this convention.

Reagan is an inclusive Republican. His philosophy is conservative, but his style is more liberal than that. He reached out to disaffected Democrats, to young people, to working people. It was the Democratic Party in the 1980s that saw its base shrink and its appeal dismissed as narrow.

This year, these roles have reversed. The Republicans in Houston celebrated Patrick J. Buchanan and Pat Robertson, silenced the moderates, and reached out instead to the religious right. It was the Democrats in New York who rebuffed Sister Souljah, refused to make deals with Jesse Jackson and reached out to the middle. The Democrats are in better shape than they have been in decades, while the Republican Party is in disarray. And Bush, who began his political career as a moderate, cannot or will not lead his party down the path of inclusion.

It was "us against them" last week in Houston, and God had chosen a side. Evangelical conservatives pushed aside not only moderates in the Republican Party, but even the traditional economic conservatives. Instead of political debate, we had religious warfare. God was invoked. The opposition was damned. The cheer from the floor during Bush's speech was "Hit 'em again, hit 'em again--harder, harder." In this atmosphere, gay men and lesbian women have become the Willie Hortons of 1992.

The President let others do his dirty work, occasionally apologizing, but more often just remaining silent, and refused to stand up to the evangelical right. He sat by as gays were bashed, Hillary Clinton was damned and religious war was declared.

It began in the Platform Committee. The GOP platform, in addition to its opposition to gay rights and abortion rights, called on the government to "not remain neutral toward religion itself or the values religion supports," and urged state legislatures "to explore ways to promote marital stability."