Strategy for Realignment

Republicans are of a mind these days to “nix the six,” meaning the six-year itch—i.e., the theory that after a party has held the White House for six years, voters turn against it. Washington Republicans want to shatter this pattern—in fact, they want to make 1986 a year of realignment. Party strategists see the road to realignment running through the South, which has been undisputedly Democratic for well over a century, but which, since the Eisenhower era, has regularly voted Republican in presidential elections.

The strategy is double-barreled: first, the re-registration of rank-and-file voters; second, the persuasion of influential Democrats to bolt the party and become Republicans. “One will feed the other,” says Bill Greener, political director of the Republican National Committee. “When elected officials see their constituents registering Republican, they’ll be inclined to switch too. And, vice versa, when the leaders switch, they’ll pull pieces of the general population with them.”

JM

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John McLaughlin

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Republicans are of a mind these days to “nix the six,” meaning the six-year itch—i.e., the theory that after a party has held the White House for six years, voters turn against it. Washington Republicans want to shatter this pattern—in fact, they want to make 1986 a year of realignment. Party strategists see the road to realignment running through the South, which has been undisputedly Democratic for well over a century, but which, since the Eisenhower era, has regularly voted Republican in presidential elections.

The strategy is double-barreled: first, the re-registration of rank-and-file voters; second, the persuasion of influential Democrats to bolt the party and become Republicans. “One will feed the other,” says Bill Greener, political director of the Republican National Committee. “When elected officials see their constituents registering Republican, they’ll be inclined to switch too. And, vice versa, when the leaders switch, they’ll pull pieces of the general population with them.”