The 1980 Election and the Polarization of America Many people consider the 1980 presidential election to be one of the most influential in american history. The incumbent Carter didn’t have high approval ratings near the end of his presidency, but it seemed to have little effect on the polling, which Carter lead until November. Reagan won in a surprise victory rivaling even the 2016 election with its unexpected result. However, the 1980 election had a bigger impact than just deciding who would be president for the next 4 years. This election caused a massive political polarization, which still hasn’t faded. So, in order to better understand American politics, it is important to find the cause of current polarization. Before talking about
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It had truly never been seen before. For this, here are some statistics. This graph shows the difference in percentage of white men who voted for democrats and republicans (a positive number meaning a Republican advantage) from 1948-1976, the years before this election. Now the graph may seem to show a gap, but looking at who won in each of these years, a different story is seen. In each year shown on the graph, the winner of the election either won or split the white male vote. Every year, they trended towards voting for the victor, and not simply the Republican candidates. This is most exemplified in the 1964 Election, where white men voted with an 11 point difference in favor of the widely popular Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. This is also shown in 1972 when pre-scandal Richard Nixon rode his popularity to a 35-point white male victory. Before this year, it seems that extremely popular and victorious candidates win white men. The reason for the existence of this white male gap is still up for debate, but Kuhn has a theory that many believe to be true. He states that around the year 1980, the democratic party began to become the party of the minority. They fought for women’s rights, african american rights, Hispanic rights, but of all of these demographics, they missed the biggest one. The one group they weren’t advocates for were the white men. Some democrats even used them as a common enemy, the one group that had all the privilege. They completely alienated the largest election demographic, and never won it
It had truly never been seen before. For this, here are some statistics. This graph shows the difference in percentage of white men who voted for democrats and republicans (a positive number meaning a Republican advantage) from 1948-1976, the years before this election. Now the graph may seem to show a gap, but looking at who won in each of these years, a different story is seen. In each year shown on the graph, the winner of the election either won or split the white male vote. Every year, they trended towards voting for the victor, and not simply the Republican candidates. This is most exemplified in the 1964 Election, where white men voted with an 11 point difference in favor of the widely popular Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. This is also shown in 1972 when pre-scandal Richard Nixon rode his popularity to a 35-point white male victory. Before this year, it seems that extremely popular and victorious candidates win white men. The reason for the existence of this white male gap is still up for debate, but Kuhn has a theory that many believe to be true. He states that around the year 1980, the democratic party began to become the party of the minority. They fought for women’s rights, african american rights, Hispanic rights, but of all of these demographics, they missed the biggest one. The one group they weren’t advocates for were the white men. Some democrats even used them as a common enemy, the one group that had all the privilege. They completely alienated the largest election demographic, and never won it