Did the Cold War favor the GOP?

[Fuzzy Bear]

The Cold War favored the Republicans from 1968 on.  The 1972 McGovern campaign instilled in folks' minds the idea that the Democratic Party would, in the name of pacifism, make deals and treaties that were not in the interests of the United States and reduce defense spending to a level where the United States would be at a military disadvantage vis a vis the Soviets.  The Nucear Freeze movement of the early 1980s was quickly discredited as it smacked of unilateral disarmament. 

What many people don't realize today is that in 1968, the Democratic Party was the party of what we would call "Neocons" today.  Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Ben Wattenberg, Henry Jackson, Irving Kristol, Zbignew Brzinski, Paul Wolfowitz, and a number of such folks were in the middle of the Democratic Party in 1968; Jackson died in 1983 and all of the rest gravitated to supporting Republicans, whether they formally changed parties or not.  And most like-minded Democrats followed suit at the polls.  These were the voters in the middle that delivered election after election to the Repubicans; they were the critical constituency, as many of them voted Democratic at the local and state level, and even for Congress.  The Democrats did not regain competitiveness in Presidential elections until the Cold War ended, and they did not regain a Presidential majority until most of these voters died off.