Drift Toward the G.O.P.

The historic 49-state landslide that carried Ronald Reagan into a second term of office nearly a year ago prompted many analysts to speculate that the U.S. body politic was undergoing a fundamental realignment in party identification and loyalty. The President's strong showing among many groups traditionally associated with the Democrats, including blue-collar families and the young, seemed to indicate that Reagan might be forging a new Republican majority, much as Franklin D. Roosevelt had done for the Democrats in the early days of the New Deal. A survey conducted for TIME by Yankelovich, Skelly & White suggests that nothing quite that...