The Uneasy Electorate
HAVING decided 48 Presidential elections, the American electorate should by now have attained advanced middle age. But, like so many who have reached this stage, the electorate seems to be experiencing a small mid-life crisis. It recently abandoned its customary ways and, despite the urgings of politicians, has refused to settle down. When academic polling commenced on a large scale in the 1950’s, the electorate was first seen to be very stable. Most Americans were willing to identify with a party, and most could be counted on to support their party’s candidates. The two major parties, though drawing voters from all segments of society, each had a “rational” base of support in the socioeconomic structure: The Democrats were the party of labor and the poor, and the Republicans were the party of business and the wealthy. This stable behavioral pattern was reinforced by a nominating process in which professional politicians had the dominant power and normally used it to choose candidates who could hold their party’s coalition together and maximize its chances for success.
