Reply #23: Here's something else in that test review... [View All]

"Before 1968, party politics in the United States followed a predictable cycle of change. Critical elections in 1860, 1896, and 1932 reflected large swings in the partisan loyalties of the electorate. This process of realignment is less descriptive of American electoral politics today than it was thirty years ago. Party identification is becoming less important over time. More split-ticket voting indicates weakening partisanship."

Note those dates.

They were periods of crisis where people saw an urgency in throwing the bums out and looked for real alternatives. Normally, nobody is looking for radical change. People are "conservative" by nature-- they may want some things, but are afraid of screwing up what they have if things are going reasonably well. They will not vote for a known radical or ideologue of any stripe.

Aside from a few diehards, issues are largely irrelevant. What most voters are looking for is stability, and a reasonable expectation that the politician will work reasonably hard to not screw things up while possibly making things slightly better. Try as I might, I can't think of anyone I've ever met who took seriously anything a politician said or promised in a campaign.

We're looking for attitudes and warm fuzzies. We're looking for someone we can feel confident about giving the responsibility for a large part of our lives to. We know we're not going to get everything we want, but we're looking for someone who will get us a fair share.

I'll take his word for 1968 being the point of change in party loyalties, but prior to WWII, the country was much different than it is now. It was still largely split between rural and urban populations, and they had vastly different concerns. Now, many of the concerns of those days have been dealt with, and we are geographically much more unified in our concerns. Something like the "Cross of Gold" speech would be ridiculous. We tend to agree on the problems, and don't differ all that much on the solutions.

A "Cross of Black Gold" speech might be in order sometime in the near future if and when we actually do hit a peak oil crisis. But that day isn't here yet.

And it's sobering to note that that speech didn't win Bryan the election.