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OTL, the decline of the Democrats probably came with the 1968 election.

The Romney-Reagan ticket dominated so effectively in the election following Goldwater's coming third in the electoral vote to the Barnett-Wallace ticket (Goldwater only winning Arizona, Idaho, and Nebraska). It was a real political shock when the Democrats came third electorally in 1968.

It certainly didn't help that along with being the new home for disaffected Dixiecrats, the AIP's 1968 candidate actually had a *stronger* AFL-CIO rating than the Democratic nominee. The AIP's coopting of white labor voters and southerners from the Democrats while the GOP at the same time was bringing black and racially-liberal voters back into the fold ultimately reduced the Democrats to a regional party against two national behemoths.

Just look at the 1968 election totals:
George Romney - Ronald Reagan: 398 (47.4%)
George Wallace - Happy Chandler: 86 (22.5%)
Hubert Humphrey - Henry Jackson: 54 (29.7%)

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How could the Democrats be saved as one of the top two parties in the United States?
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