Word: blue-collar
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PRESIDENT Nixon's massive victory splintered a once dominant force in national politics: the Democratic coalition. Welded together by the despair of the Depression and the charisma of Franklin D. Roosevelt, it consisted of an unlikely amalgam of minorities: Southern whites, Jews, "ethnic"* blue-collar workers, blacks and campus-oriented intellectuals. Despite the disparate backgrounds and views of these blocs, the coalition was remarkably durable. It produced 20 consecutive years of Democratic Administrations, survived the virtually unbeatable heroic appeal and victories of Dwight Eisenhower, and regrouped to elect John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Severely split by the riotous Chicago convention...
...FACTOR that turned the election, that both men were aware of but tried to ignore, was the composition of Rhode Island voters. The second-most urban state in the country. Rhode Island is predominantly blue-collar and predominantly Democratic--in 1968 it gave Humphrey his largest margin. In addition, the state has the strongest Democratic machine outside of Chicago with political boss Larry McGarry serving as State Democratic Chairman and Providence Democratic Chairman...
...contest remained in doubt for most of the night. The 9th District-victim of a 1971 redistricting-has been gerrymandered to include an unusual coalition of white middle-class suburbs and Boston blue-collar wards...
...Republicans are also making a bid for the basically conservative blue-collar vote. Although the Texas AFL-CIO has come out for McGovern, Nixon is slightly ahead among union members. "I won't give you the figures because we are still trailing, but we are within striking distance," said a Texas labor source who asked to remain unidentified. "McGovern has shown a vast improvement among the inactive, non-leader membership, however," the source said. "We have found that this group runs very close to the rest of the country (in it's voting patterns...
Probably the only issue which Newfield and Greenfield feel should be a component of a 1972 populist strategy, that McGovern plays down, is crime in the street. While addressing blue-collar audiences, McGovern buries the issue into the middle of his speech. He refers to drugs and crime only when discussing ways the U.S. could use the $7 billion it spends each year on the war in Vietnam. Yet crime control is certainly not a major component of a populist program. Economic issues are, and McGovern certainly does deal with these questions...