In all bodies, those who will lead, must also, in a considerable degree, follow. They must conform their propositions to the taste, talent, and disposition, of those whom they wish to conduct: therefore, if an assembly is viciously or feebly composed in a very great part of it, nothing but such a supreme degree of virtue as very rarely appears in the world, and for that reason cannot enter into calculation, will prevent the men of talent disseminated through it from becoming only the expert instruments of absurd projects!Frances Lee (p. 31): "At no point after 1958 and before 1980 were Democratic majorities in Congress seen in serious jeopardy."
The tale of the tape:
Why?
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Democrats gained strength in much of the country, but the GOP had not yet surged in the South.
Why did the South stick with Democrats in House and Senate races?
Review from earlier in the semester: Nixon was never serious about party control of Congress, and Southern Democratic pols managed to thread the needle of attracting the newly-enfranchised African American electorate without losing most of the conservative white electorate.
So what happened by 1980?
Race and the South: Lee Atwater speaks in an interview that did not surface until long after his 1991 death.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Democrats gained strength in much of the country, but the GOP had not yet surged in the South.
Why did the South stick with Democrats in House and Senate races?
Review from earlier in the semester: Nixon was never serious about party control of Congress, and Southern Democratic pols managed to thread the needle of attracting the newly-enfranchised African American electorate without losing most of the conservative white electorate.
So what happened by 1980?
Race and the South: Lee Atwater speaks in an interview that did not surface until long after his 1991 death.
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