In any event, the whole schematic is dated. The allignments are driven these days by style and what superficial cultural issues are in play, and just how the somewhat economically pressed Anglo lower middle class vote goes, which is cross conflicted by a host of issues. The idea that there will be a stable majority party holding sway is profoundly silly. It is unlikely to happen, particularly since with modern communications and focus groups and pollings, the parties, and more to the point, political entreprenuers, can tack with considerably more accuracy and boatloads of more media money, towards trying to garner the vital swing voters.
Thus I suspects public squares like FR will be endlessly fascinating until sometime after I depart this mortal coil.
Far too much emphasis and weight has been put on the recall election, as some harbinger of a realignment. There was a slow and steady realignment from about 1977 on, that slowly made the GOP into a parity party from a minority party. There was no seismic event, Reagan to the contrary notwithstanding, although Reagan was a factor. The Burnham hypothesis based on about 4 data points (an absurdly small statistical sample), on realigning elections as some political harbinger, that occurred about every 30 to 40 years or so, really did not pan out.
In any event, the whole schematic is dated. The alignments are driven these days by style and what superficial cultural issues are in play, and just how the somewhat economically pressed Anglo lower middle class vote goes, which is cross conflicted by a host of issues. The idea that there will be a stable majority party holding sway is profoundly silly. It is unlikely to happen, particularly since with modern communications and focus groups and pollings, the parties, and more to the point, political entreprenuers, can tack with considerably more accuracy and with boatloads of more money for the media, towards trying to garner the vital swing voters.
Thus I suspects public squares like FR will be endlessly fascinating until sometime after I depart this
Shuffle off, dearest...one shuffles off a mortal coil according to Will Shakespeare. I assume he's referring to the flesh and bones coiled around one's spirit. Forgive me for failing to resist the impulse to point that out to you.
Otherwise your analysis is quite interesting, as usual. You really know your stuff about elections.