ABSTRACT
Republicans are much better at being Republicans than Democrats are. Republicans are better at “Republicanism” than Democrats, and the electorate senses it. The Democratic Party lost its way attempting to gain electoral success in presidential elections. The strategy was to counter Republican victories by modeling itself—in terms of policy stands, voters targeted, and even funding efforts and a reliance on media strategies—after the Republican party. There are any number of ways to chart the Democrats’ efforts to reformulate their appeal in an attempt to counter Republican successes after 1968 and to become more competitive in appealing to much the same electorate. The Democrats had begun in earnest their move toward more centrist positions in reaction to the Republican interpretations of what the elections of 1980 and 1984 signified. The Republicans drafted a long, conservative platform that the Democrats, for some reason, had difficulty in attacking. The Democratic Party has been “shadowing” the Republican Party.
