ABSTRACT
After World War II, Americans looked forward to purchasing automobiles and homes. The Depression had decimated their meager assets; then World War II raised their incomes. Voters, even those who had supported Franklin Roosevelt, were in a foul temper because of the postwar strikes. Republicans won fifty-five House seats and twelve Senate seats in the 1946 midterm elections, giving them a congressional majority they had not enjoyed since Roosevelt’s rise to power. To conservatives, the Hiss case was one more piece of evidence pointing to the impending collapse of the New Deal Democratic Party. Even as Modern Republicans shoved aside conservatives, the Democrats were scrambling to hide their divisions and hold the New Deal coalition together. Given his legislative experience, political skills, and a reservoir of campaign cash from Texas oil men, Lyndon Johnson should have been the Democratic presidential nominee in 1960.
