THE ETHNIC FACTOR: How America's Minorities Decide Elections

An ""election by election, precinct by precinct, state by state"" rundown of how ethnic minorities have behaved at the polls, with iffy forecasts of future voting patterns. The authors challenge ""the Big Lie of assimilation"" and insist with the backing of computerized data that ""hyphenated Americans do vote as ethnic blocs."" To politicians who have constructed intricate political machines on an ethnic constituency basis, this news is somewhat stale; to sociologists who expect a modicum of breakdown by class and social affiliation -- organized and unorganized workers, old and new middle class, etc. -- both the argument and the statistical analysis will seem trite and superficial. ""Slavs"" are said to be getting more conservative but keeping their faith in the Democratic Party; ""blacks"" go Democratic in presidential elections, have a penchant for supporting their own, and a potential black presidential candidate spells doom for the Democratic Party. The Irish are diffuse, the Jews liberal, Chicanos and Puerto Ricans at the take-off stage. Even those most disposed to take manuals of voting behavior at face value will have to keep in mind that psephology offers at best a codification of the past with little assurance about the pragmatisms of the future.