This alienated urban Catholic workers in the Northeast, leaving the Republicans in control of the industrial states and the Democrats strong in the farm states of the South and Midwest. 1932-when, in the midst of an economic depression, Roosevelt gained office on the basis of popular dissatisfaction and proceeded to implement policies that drew urban workers, blacks, and Jews away from the Republicans to form a new majority coalition. A party may try to straddle the issue, as the Whigs did with slavery in 1860. Or it may take a distinct position, as the Republicans did in 1860 and as both parties did in 1896 and 1932. Either way, the salient new issue creates a new alignment, both by converting existing voters and by recruiting new voters into the dominant party.
Some people feel that the nation is overdue for another realigning period.
Indeed, some think the 1980 election signaled the breakup of the New Deal coalition and its replacement with an alignment by which the Republicans will benefit from a new conservative coalition. Neither the 1980 nor the 1984 elections per se signaled a realigning shift among voters. Apparently, economic issues and personalities affected the voters more than any fundamental repudiation of the entire New Deal political philosophy. Perhaps, however, the party system has lost much of its meaning for voters that parties will decay rather than realign. Evidence of this is found in the decreasing proportion of voters who identify themselves with one or another party and in the consequent increase in split-ticket voting.