Ezra's Bookshelf

The Real Majority

by Richard Scammon and Ben Wattenberg · 356 pages · ~6.5 hrs

Politics & Government

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Richard Scammon and Ben Wattenberg's 'The Real Majority' is a classic of American political analysis that fundamentally shaped how both parties understood the electorate for decades. Written after the turbulent 1968 election, the book argued that most American voters were neither ideologically consistent nor primarily motivated by the policy debates that animated activists. Instead, the typical voter was 'unyoung, unpoor, and unblack,' and primarily concerned with what Scammon and Wattenberg called the 'Social Issue,' an amalgam of concerns about crime, disorder, and social change that cut across traditional economic alignments. The book counseled Democrats to moderate on these cultural issues to retain the working-class majority that had sustained New Deal coalitions. Its influence was immense: Nixon's strategists studied it closely, and subsequent Democratic campaigns from Clinton to Obama followed its prescriptions. Rereading the book today illuminates both how much and how little has changed in American politics. The demographic arguments have dated, but the tension between cultural and economic appeals that Scammon and Wattenberg identified remains central to political strategy. Readers interested in the history of American political consulting or the long roots of contemporary polarization will find an essential document.

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