berals.
The effect of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been to turn the South, for the first time, into a two-party system. Southern conservatives turned into Republicans, and in the process they turned the Republican Party into the conservative party of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, while the Democrats, shorn of much of the Southern white vote, became the liberal party.
Yet politicians, needing to raise money from special interest groups because they depend on paid television ads to be elected, are nervous about offending business, and so they stick to the centre.
Voters are increasingly frustrated. Half the electorate is angry that the conservative revolution initiated by Ronald Reagan has been stopped in its tracks. The other half resents the dominance of corporate business. This does not explain the statistical stasis of the 2000 elections. But it does help to explain the new mood of bitterness and intransigence that will make it hard to resolve the dead-heat.