IN THESE panicky times, it is easy to doubt whether American politics will ever feel normal again. Here is a case for calm. It is true that when pollsters survey Republicans, about half say that they want to send an angry champion to Washington, with a Samson-like mandate to bring down the rotten pillars of government, ideally on the heads of the political class. But presidential nominees are not chosen by national opinion polls. Candidates win nominations state-by-state, and each one has its quirks.
A good place to look for evidence of normality is in South Carolina, which on February 20th will hold the first presidential primary elections in the South, shortly after Iowa and New Hampshire’s frostbitten contests.
Since 1980 South Carolina voters have an almost-perfect record of picking the candidate who goes on to win the Republican nomination. Local grandees call their state a microcosm of conservative America. It boasts God-and-guns rural voters in the hills of the Upcountry. It offers shrink-the-government fiscal conservatives in the Lowcountry, a coastal region transformed by tourism, foreign investment and legions of retired folk. The...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1PCjqqp
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