Thomas E. Mann Quotes
Second, the President's popularity has not translated into increased support for the Republican party or for the policies and approaches on domestic policy championed by the President.
Mann, Thomas E. "Assessing the 2002 Midterm Elections." Brookings Institution, 2002.
This was a new political phenomenon where a President was perceived as more important, more powerful, and preferable to his party. Note that the base of the scale is labeled “Public Opinion”.
Simon Cameron had switched parties from Democrat to Republican. Lincoln said of him:
2012 and 2013 with the Tea Party driving Republicans more to the right under fear of being attacked in their primary elections caused the handful to shrink to 2 or 3. The change stems from the historical fact that the majority of the Democratic racists (mostly of the South) were furious that their party, had passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ending legal segregation and institutional racism of the South. The Republicans implemented a “Southern Strategy” by using code words that endorsed Southern racism and this swung the formerly Democratic “Solid” South to the Republican side changing the balance of power for years. The conservative Democrats became Republicans changing the balance in that party. The conservatives starting purging the liberal Republicans and then drove many of the moderates out. Meanwhile, the Democrats, without their conservative wing from the South became more left wing and made things uncomfortable for the remaining conservatives. Just as Tama predicted there were few moderates left to cross over and vote with the other party. Congress became totally dysfunctional.
Thomas E. Mann is the W. Averell Harriman Chair and a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. He primarily studies and speaks on elections in the United States, campaign finance reform, Senate and filibuster reform, Congress, redistricting, and political polarization.
