THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN POLITICS

A lively and fresh analysis of the American political puzzle which will probably receive considerable attention from those in doubt about the 1952 elections. In the last analysis, Lubell bespeaks our need for political realignment, for the parties to free themselves from traditional thought patterns and allow for increased mobility for decision. His theory of the emergence of a new political pattern, the design of which he cannot presume to state, is based on solid examination of social trends such as the maturation of certain city minority groups, the rise of a new middle class out of the depression which is not so Republicanly conservative as we might think, the Negro problem and the extreme tension it has created in the North, an ironical middle class Republicanism in the South, the new twist that isolationism has taken since the cold war, the new sympathies of the farmer who now worries about too little and too much government, ""an ebbing of labor's political vitality"", the cold war as it redirects thought about the role of government. Working with these, Lubell delves into the reasons behind Truman's surprising victory in 1948; why the Democratic Party seems to thrive on the stalemate of issues within it; how Republican reorganization, if they win in 1952, will determine the healthy of unhealthy state of the Democrats. As a long time worker in the field, and a writer of many magazine articles on politics and voting trends, Mr. Lubell's qualifications for vivid, intelligent political thinking are augmented by his handling of this latest work. Although a bit deterministic at times, he works well within his theses -- has turned out an interesting and very readable survey of our present political situation.