General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Thomas Frank: Dems have gone from the party of the New Deal to a party defending mass inequality [View all]idlisambar
(928 posts)And that is to unapologetically represent the economic interests of working people. There was nothing necessarily wrong with reaching out to the emerging professional class but the problem is that Democrats in this period, starting with the McGovern election, marginalized Labor in doing so - both in terms of the party power structure and in the resulting policies that were promoted (finance deregulation, free trade, weakening of labor laws) . Frank goes into some detail about this in the book.
I'll take your point though, there is no question that Civil Rights and Vietnam put a lot of stress on the New Deal coalition in the late 60's and early 70's. The failure of Democrats to recover from that difficult breach left a political vacuum that Reaganism filled. I would take issue with the characterization of the last of those losses. Dukakis, the technocrat, was much more of a New Democrat than a New Dealer and he lost handily to Bush. In any one presidential race sometimes it may come down to the talent of the politician. Bill Clinton was just a better politician operating under more favorable circumstances 4 years later.