1970's Government and Politics | Wallace, George C., Jr., 1919-

GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA; PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

Fashioning a Conservative Electorate.

Earlier than any other political figure, George Wallace recognized the ideological shift in American voters—especially blue-collar Democrats—that would eventually vault Ronald Reagan to the presidency in 1980. A gritty southern populist, Wallace tapped into the resentments of an electorate sick of the cultural revolutions of the 1960s, opposed to governmental power, and determined to reassert old-fashioned verities in a volatile age. Every winning presidential candidate from 1968 to 1984 built upon the conservative electorate Wallace first fashioned as his own; Wallace's inability to use this voting base to become president in his own right exemplifies the limits of his political abilities.

Standing in the University Doorway.

Born in Clio, Alabama, on 25 August 1919, Wallace received a law degree from the University of...