Berg -- Realigning Elections -- 3/3/2004
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power bloc was derived from the need to appeal to newly independent African nations in the
context of the Cold War — that is, to protect capitalism from the communist challenge.
4. George Wallace’s 9.9 million votes as candidate of the American Independent party
helped Nixon win, and confirmed the possibility of winning white southern former Democrats
with the Southern Strategy, which led in turn to the consolidation of Democratic loyalty in the
urban North. At the same time, the independent McCarthy campaign of 1968, and the campaigns
of the Peace and Freedom party and other minor parties encouraged the Democrats to accept
movement activists into their ranks.
5. The immediate policy result of the 1960s was to expand the welfare state quantita-
tively, and to extend it to include racial minorities among its benficiaries. This was not just a
matter of bigger budgets; welfare recipients, victims of job discrimination, racial minority school
children, and others won important new legal rights, which enabled them to use the courts and
the administrative apparatus of the state to protect their interests. That is to say, they were incor-
porated into the state — but they were incorporated, once again, as dominated elements, insuffi-
ciently powerful to protect the welfare state or affirmative action from the conservative on-
slaught that began to take hold after 1980.
Where Are We Now?
Three ways to characterize the present state of party politics would seem to exhaust the
possibilities:
1. Normal politics — things are likely to go on as they have been, with electoral competi-
tion focused more on personality and isolated issues rather than party and platform.
2. Critical election in 2000 — the election of George W. Bush completed the transition
from a Democratic to a Republican normal majority, ending 20 years of nearly continuous di-
vided government; the Republicans are now likely to stay in power for some time, and the minor
parties that have sprung up are likely to wilt.
Convention