Goodbye to the Reagan Democrats

Written by David Frum on Wednesday September 2, 2009

A new Gallup poll on the ideological and partisan makeup of the American electorate shows that white conservative Republicans make up 23% of the population and white conservative Democrats another 6%. If that is correct, things do not look promising for advocates of an all-conservative electoral strategy.

Byron York of the D.C. Examiner directs attention to this new poll from Gallup about the ideological and partisan makeup of the American electorate.

There are a lot of points to draw from it, but here's my headline:

If it's right that white conservative Republicans make up 23% of the population and that white conservative Democrats make up another 6%, things do not look promising for advocates of an all-conservative electoral strategy. There's no winning for the GOP without moderates, independents and at least a slice of the non-white vote.