Nixon was odd and paranoid at the same time. Back then it was said a conservative republican stood for the same things the democrats did, only a little less. Eisenhower, Nixon and Ford probably wouldn’t be allowed into the Republican Party today. Back then both major parties had their conservative and liberal wings. The Republican Party had its liberal Rockefeller Republicans of the Northeast while the Democrats had their conservative southern democrats. Both parties were a mixture, not like today when the Republican Party is the conservative party and the Democratic Party, the liberal party. You had no straight party line votes back then either. Both parties basically split their votes along ideological and regional lines. Entirely a different era, unrecognizable today. But this is the era where I gain my political footing.
The problem as I see it isn’t that the Democrats don’t want to win. It’s both parties playing to their base and basically no one else. Playing to 30% of all America while ignoring the other 70%. After a few years, those unwashed in the middle, swing voters, independents get angry at being ignored, so they vote one party out of power and the other party in. Each time hoping that the new party they voted in will take them into consideration when it comes to governing instead of just their base. It never happens. But the vote one party in one election and vote them out the next has become the only tool available for independents. Neither party will move toward the middle to placate them. Especially not in today’s modern political era of polarization, the great divide and the super, mega, ultra-high partisanship. Even though by doing so would in my opinion allow the party in power to take little steps forward toward their ultimate goal for years and years and remain in power. Instead to please their base, each party tries their gigantic leaps which does nothing but peeve off independents because those gigantic leaps takes them out of their comfort zone. In the end independents vote for the party’s candidates they’re less angry at. Usually the party out of power candidates or the party that doesn’t hold the presidency.
