POLITICAL NOTES: What’s in a Name?

Vice President Richard Nixon expects a stiff uphill fight against the Democrats, and test-borings of the U.S. electorate confirm his estimate. Last week’s Gallup poll of party preference among five major occupation groups shows that since 1952 the G.O.P. has won few new friends and lost some old ones.

Heaviest defectors to the Democrats are farmers and white-collar workers. Asked which party best serves their interests, farmers chose:

1952 1960

Republican 28% 18%

Democratic 50% 54%

No difference & no opinion 22% 28%

White-collar workers picked:

1952 1960

Republican 44% 29%

Democratic 28% 32%

No difference & no opinion 28% 39%

A majority (55%) of business and professional people are still Republicans, but only about one in seven among skilled (13%) and unskilled (14%) workers favors the G.O.P. Sidelight: during the past eight years, an increasing minority in each occupation group have decided that there is no essential difference in parties as far as their personal interests are concerned.

If party labels were swept away in a liberal-conservative realignment, a Republican-type party might profit. Among the minority (44%) of voters who understood the liberal-conservative division. Gallup pollsters last week found more prospective conservatives (45%) than prospective liberals (43%). Omitting the undecided (12%), conservatives (51%) edged liberals (49%) nationally, with this region-by-region breakdown:

Liberal Conservative East 58% 42%

Midwest 42% 58%

South 45% 55%

Far West 50% 50%