Talking Strategy: Agenda Manipulation and the Battle for Power in Congress.

Throughout history, political elites have manipulated issues to attract supporters and improve their reelection chances. I argue that, across time, minority party leaders have looked to emerging social movements as indicators of issues of increasing salience. While the rise of the movement gives minority elites the opportunity to reshape their party's image and attract new supporters, interest groups at the center of the movement provide the resources necessary for the party's success. As an example, I point to the connection between the Republican Party and the Christian Right. Prior to the 1960s, neither major party took a definitive stand on cultural issues such as abortion and gay rights. However, Republican elites began working with leaders of the emerging Christian Right and added these issues to their party's platform. By focusing on their opposition to abortion and gay marriage, the party was able to attract movement supporters and, in 1994, win a majority in both houses of Congress for the first time since 1953. Using a measure of issue salience created through a search of the New York Times, a time series analysis indicates that increases in the publication of articles on cultural issues immediately precede increases in the election of Republicans to Congress. Furthermore, this pattern does not appear for other types of issues. I argue that this theory of minority party agenda manipulation can be applied to other cases across history, suggesting that the minority party may play an important and previously unrecognized role in framing the political agenda. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]