Kevin P. Phillips: The Emerging Republican Majority

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the key political theories, demographic trends, and historical turning points described in Kevin P. Phillips' analysis of the 1968 U.S. presidential election and the subsequent shift in American politics.

Kevin P. Phillips

The principal voting patterns and trends analyst for the 1968 Nixon campaign and author of "The Emerging Republican Majority" (1969).

New Deal Democratic Hegemony

The thirty-six-year political cycle from $1932$ to $1968$ that was characterized by federal interventionism and Democratic dominance.

1968 Presidential Election

The election of Richard M. Nixon which according to Phillips bespoke the end of the New Deal era and the beginning of a new political cycle.

George Wallace

The $1968$ third-party candidate who drew support from conservative Democrats and "tapped rather than shaped" a protest against the national Democratic Party.

Sun Belt

The rapidly growing region consisting of states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California that are becoming bastions of white middle-class conservatism.

Liberal Establishment (1960s)

Institutions including Wall Street, the Episcopal Church, the U.S. Supreme Court, and major metropolitan newspapers that Phillips argues became the institutionalized elite of the New Deal.

Great Society

Nomenclature for Democratic programs of the $1960s$ that Phillips describes as the ideological impetus of taxing the many on behalf of the few.

Silk-stocking Voters

Wealthy, establishmentarian voters typically from areas like Manhattan's East Side or rich suburbs who shifted toward the Democratic Party between $1960$ and $1968$.

Yankee Tradition

The cultural and political background of New England and the Great Lakes, which historically formed the core of the GOP but became the base of Democratic strength by $1968$.

Interregnum

An eight-year period in American political cycles when the lesser party holds power, such as the Eisenhower years during the New Deal cycle or Wilson during the industrial GOP era.

Ethnicultural Cleavages

The ethnic and cultural animosities that Phillips identifies as the principal dynamics in explaining American party choice and identification.

Heartland

The American interior region settled by the westward movement of both Northerners and Southerners, now forming a conservative core for the Republican Party.

$$57\%$$

The combined percentage of the total national vote received by Richard Nixon and George Wallace in $1968$, representing a mandate against Democratic liberalism.

Southern California

A major site of middle-class population explosion and conservatism that Phillips argues represents the political future of the most populous state in the Union.

Decentralizing Government

The anticipated new era of governance intended to regain public confidence by moving away from the bureaucratic social engineering of the Great Society.

Cyclical Seal

The confirmation of a partisan re-alignment, which Phillips claims occurred in the $1968$ election following the initial Southern and Western impetus of $1964$.

The Catholic GOP Trend

The movement of urban Catholic ethnic groups, particularly in New York City, away from the Democratic Party towards the Republican Party due to social upheavals of the $1960s$.