THE VOTE: Marching North from Georgia

Torn asunder by George McGovern's poorly executed and unsettling "New Left" campaign in 1972, the old Democratic coalition—for decades a dominant force in national elections—seemed to have passed forever from the political scene. Consisting of a strange collection"of minority bedfellows—ethnic blue-collar workers (mostly Catholic), blacks, Southern whites, Jews and campus-oriented intellectuals—it appeared unlikely to be born again under any Democratic presidential nominee, let alone a small-town Georgian. Yet on Election Day 1976, the coalition reemerged. Some parts creaked badly, some were hardly recognizable, and others seemed to be missing. But...