TDantuono
Rookie
Posts: 93
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« on: November 16, 2016, 01:47:59 AM » |
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Both 1968 and 1980 saw an 'outsider' Republican make in roads into typically safe Democratic areas and voting blocs, and both represented a time of wilderness for the Democratic Party, wherein the party was left to rediscover and redefine itself.
Both '68 and '80's results can also be seen as a pushback against the leftist movements of the two eras: 1968 saw Nixon winning on a 'law and order' stance, with voters electing him to push back against the lawlessness and rioting which populated the late 1960s. Reagan's victory in 1980 was a symbolic blow to the concept of 'big government' and marked a return to a more 1950s era value system, in response to the wild changes of the '60s and '70s.
'68's results left the Democrats without a real direction for over a decade; Reagan's results were seen as the death knell for the New Deal coalition.
The question is, was 2016 a similar referendum on the Democratic Party embracing a two far left stance? Will the 2020s be conservative like the '80s were? Will the Democratic Party recapture the White House by 2020, as they did in 1976? Or will they be left in the wilderness for a prolonged period, like after 1980?
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