Socio-economic shifts cause voter swings

MANCHESTER, N.H.  — Socio-economic shifts are changing the way American voters view candidates, according to a pre-primary discussion.

Sponsored by Time magazine and USC-Annenberg, NBC’s Chuck Todd and political strategist Matthew Dowd were among those on the Feb. 7 panel.

The 1920’s brought enormous wrinkles in the socio-economic fabric of the United States, with the largely agrarian population abandoning its lifestyle for industrial and manufacturing work in cities, panelists said.

Today, America’s manufacturing has mostly disappeared, moving to nations with cheaper labor and looser working standards, leaving a large portion of the American working class without much prospect for employment.

This portion of the population, largely middle age and undereducated, has struggled to remain competitive in an economy dominated by modern technology and the younger, college-educated workforce behind it, panelists said.

As voters, this portion of the population has swung between supporting politicians to the left, the right and the center, all in the course of one lifetime.

In the ’60s and ’70s, panelists said, it was this demographic that essentially fired four presidents: Lyndon Johnson gave up his re-election bid; Richard Nixon was forced to resign; Gerald Ford lost after one unelected term; and Jimmy Carter lost after one term after a poor economy sank his chances.

In the 2000s, things seem to have slipped out of U.S. control, panelists said, pointing to foreign policy disasters in the Middle East, terrorism and the globalized economy.

But even after all this turbulence, the wealthiest Americans, those who can afford professional educations and are able to take large financial risks, have remained safe and indifferent, actually growing wealthier, panelists said.

The United States, they said, is at another crossroads, and there is a growing sentiment that the country is headed to a similar period of disruption. Americans who believe their country and government have left them behind are flocking to candidates on the extreme left and extreme right who promise quick fixes, panelists said.