The Transformation Of America's Two Major Political Parties

One group of Americans believes that things were better in the the 1950's than they are today.  Another group believes the opposite.  Things are better today than they were in the 1950's.  The first group represents the core of the Republican Party.  Most Americans in the second group identify with the Democratic Party.  The great transformation between the two political parties began in the turmoil of the 1960's and early 70's.  The Republican Party recruited socially conservative white voters who were repelled by student activism and the cultural changes adopted by that generation.  That turned off college educated young people who once formed the core of the Republican Party.  Over time the majority of college educated Americans have become Democrats.  This article describes the details of that transformation and the implications for each of them.  It also explains how our nation's politics reached the level of polarization that we witnessing today.  Donald Trump was not accident; his rise in the Republican Party was written in the wind decades ago.