(5 of 6)
In 1960, the average American age was 291, and today it is 28. One-fourth of all Americans go to school; by the early 1970s, that fraction will be about one-third. There are already 35 million potential voters 35 or younger, and that number will shoot up as the great war-baby crop continues to turn 21. No party can ignore the shift in the political center of gravity, for around this center will swing political success in the future. To be sure, parental conditioning plus ethnic background still give many youngsters their political set. But in the greatest numbers ever, young people who feel no party allegiance are becoming part of the electorate. They are mostly unencumbered by the political possessions and prejudices born of the Depression and its New Deal remedies. Technical, managerial and professional skills entitle new voters to security and affluence and therefore independence. They care most deeply about the quality of their lives, about the matters that most directly affect them. They are often community activists who mean to have a significant say-so in their own affairs In its own instructive stress on individualism, the Republican Party would seem to have among such younger voters a rich field for future bumper crops.
Opportunity in the Megalopolis
Another great area of political opportunity lies in the steady conversion of the U.S. into an overwhelmingly urban nation. Soon, 73% of all Americans will live in 200 metropolitan areas. Nearly two-fifths will be citizens of just three great megalopolitan complexes—one ranging from Boston through New York, Philadelphia and Washington to Norfolk; another comprising all the territory between Milwaukee and Cleveland; the third taking in the California coast from San Francisco to San Diego. The cities and the suburbs that comprise the megalopolis have a vital mutuality of interest in housing, transportation, schooling, crime problems and employment.
It is remarkable how few professional Republicans, for all their philosophical emphasis on government at the local and state levels, seem to realize the city's significance. One who does is Ford Foundation's Malcolm Moos, Eisenhower's best speechwriter and a man who comes perhaps closer than anyone today to fulfilling the function of Republican ''thinker." Says Moos: "The great urban areas represent places which the Republican Party can homestead. Let's take the carbon monoxide out of the air, let's solve the water shortage, let's clean up the rivers, let's move against corruption and crime, and let's put our schools in shape. The most conspicuous political failure in the U.S. is in the governing of our cities, and the Democrats are in control of those cities. It's their fault. They're saddled with it."