1988 Voting Demographics

One of the most striking features of the 1988 presidential election was its predictability. In many ways, this predictability revolved around two separate foundations. The first was that 1988 was a year of an incumbent's election. Conditions in the country throughout the year strongly pointed toward the maintenance of the status quo rather than radical change. Secondly, the election took place well into the latest of the partisan transformation of the United States  one that began in the late 1960s (Ladd 1). Many see the 1988 election as the continuation of trends begun in previous three decades, indeed,

[W]hen major change is first evident in the parties and elections system, its central features  shifts in group ties to the political parties, issues cutting in novel directions, etc.  often startle us. But after we have seen them over a series of elections we take them as givens (Ladd 1).

This paper will ask several major questions about that election, and about the validity of the continuity paradigm in the analyzation of the 1988 presidential election. For instance, how do demographic factors affect voting profiles? Does culture, such as education and income play any role within the electoral framework? What social forces motivate election results, if any? Are demographic indicators such as religion,

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erial 57% 32% 59% 40% WhiteCollar 50% 41% 57% 42% BlueCollar 47% 46% 49% 50% FullTime Student   44% 54% Teacher 46% 42% 47% 51% Unemployed 39% 51% 37% 62% Homemaker   57% 41% Agricultural Worker 36% 59% 58% 44% Retired   50% 49% (Source: CBS News Poll in The New York Times November 10, 1988). The data this shows that as prosperity and class levels rise, so does the Republican stance of the electorate. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the poor and downtrodden, the socalled underclass of society, felt the need for a change and an increase in social programs and federal aid, policies which were sure to remained underfunded under another Republican president. The sagging economic situation, however, did little to engender support for Dukakis among those in higher income jobs, a fact most clearly in evidence in the wide percentage point spread in the 48 percent of the vote which constituted income levels of $50,000 and above. Even with economic problems for the other half of America, Dukakis failed to adopt a articulate and persuasive economic program which would convince the 40 percent of the electorate with incomes ranging from $25,000 to $49,999 (Fly, et
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Approximate Pages = 31 (250 words per page)

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