The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump
Alan I. Abramowitz has emerged as a leading spokesman for the view that our current political divide is not confined to a small group of elites and activists but a key feature of the American social and cultural landscape. The polarization of the political and media elites, he argues, arose and persists because it accurately reflects the state of American society. Here, he goes further: the polarization is unique in modern U.S. history. Today’s party divide reflects an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic. Abramowitz shows how the partisan alignment arose out of the breakup of the old New Deal coalition; introduces the most important difference between our current era and past eras, the rise of “negative partisanship”; explains how this phenomenon paved the way for the Trump presidency; and examines why our polarization could even grow deeper. This statistically based analysis shows that racial anxiety is by far a better predictor of support for Donald Trump than any other factor, including economic discontent.
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The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump
Alan I. Abramowitz has emerged as a leading spokesman for the view that our current political divide is not confined to a small group of elites and activists but a key feature of the American social and cultural landscape. The polarization of the political and media elites, he argues, arose and persists because it accurately reflects the state of American society. Here, he goes further: the polarization is unique in modern U.S. history. Today’s party divide reflects an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic. Abramowitz shows how the partisan alignment arose out of the breakup of the old New Deal coalition; introduces the most important difference between our current era and past eras, the rise of “negative partisanship”; explains how this phenomenon paved the way for the Trump presidency; and examines why our polarization could even grow deeper. This statistically based analysis shows that racial anxiety is by far a better predictor of support for Donald Trump than any other factor, including economic discontent.
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The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump

The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump

by Alan I. Abramowitz
The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump

The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump

by Alan I. Abramowitz

Hardcover

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Overview

Alan I. Abramowitz has emerged as a leading spokesman for the view that our current political divide is not confined to a small group of elites and activists but a key feature of the American social and cultural landscape. The polarization of the political and media elites, he argues, arose and persists because it accurately reflects the state of American society. Here, he goes further: the polarization is unique in modern U.S. history. Today’s party divide reflects an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic. Abramowitz shows how the partisan alignment arose out of the breakup of the old New Deal coalition; introduces the most important difference between our current era and past eras, the rise of “negative partisanship”; explains how this phenomenon paved the way for the Trump presidency; and examines why our polarization could even grow deeper. This statistically based analysis shows that racial anxiety is by far a better predictor of support for Donald Trump than any other factor, including economic discontent.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300207132
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 06/19/2018
Pages: 216
Product dimensions: 5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Alan I. Abramowitz is Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science at Emory University.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xxi

1 A New Age of Partisanship 1

2 The Decline of the New Deal Coalition, 1952-1988 19

3 From Dealignment to Alignment 43

4 The Changing Political Geography of the United States 72

5 The New American Electorate 90

6 White Racial Resentment and the Rise of Donald Trump 121

7 Negative Partisanship and the Triumph of Trump 142

Notes 175

Index 189

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