For 20 years the Democrats had controlled the U.S. Senate. Through Democratic and Republican presidencies, wars and scandals, riots and recessions, Democratic Senators maintained a majority in the "World's Greatest Deliberative Body." Then came the 1980 election-night massacre, when the heartland liberals, the George McGoverns and Frank Churches and Birch Bayhs, were sent packing by a band of upstart Republicans, most of them quite conservative and many undistinguished, who rode into office on Ronald Reagan's flowing coattails. The Democrats lost the majority that night. This year, with that G.O.P. class of 1980 up for re-election for the first time, the Democrats...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
