Kevin Phillips (USA)

Kevin Price Phillips (born 30 November 1940) is an American writer and commentator on politics, economics, and history. Formerly a Republican Party strategist before becoming an Independent, Phillips became disaffected with the party from the 1990s, and became a scathing critic. He is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, Harper's Magazine, and National Public Radio, and was a political analyst on PBS' NOW with Bill Moyers.

Phillips was a strategist on voting patterns for Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign, which was the basis for a book, The Emerging Republican Majority, which predicted a conservative realignment in national politics, and is widely regarded[citation needed] as one of the most influential recent works in political science. His predictions regarding shifting voting patterns in presidential elections proved accurate, though they did not extend "down ballot" to Congress until the Republican revolution of 1994. Phillips also was partly responsible for the design of the Republican "Southern strategy" of the 1970s and 1980s.

Phillips was educated at the Bronx High School of Science, Colgate University, the University of Edinburgh and Harvard Law School. After his stint as a senior strategist for the Nixon presidential campaign, he served a year, starting in 1969, as Special Assistant to theU.S. Attorney General, but left after a year to become a columnist. In 1971, he became president of the American Political Research Corporation and editor-publisher of the American Political Report (through 1998).

In 1982, the Wall Street Journal described him as “the leading conservative electoral analyst -- the man who invented the term "Sun Belt" [a phrase also attributed to legendary Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Sam Rayburn], named the New Right, and prophesied ‘The Emerging Republican Majority’ in 1969.”

Later, he became a critic of Republicans from the south and west, the area he had identified as the "Heartland", the future core of Republican votes. He had also identified the "Yankee Northeast" as the future Democratic stronghold, foreshadowing the current split between Red States and Blue States. More than 30 years before the 2004 election, Phillips foresaw such previously Democratic states as Texas and West Virginia swinging to the Republicans and Vermont and Maine becoming Democratic states.

The author of fourteen books, he lives in Goshen, Connecticut.

Bibliography:

The Emerging Republican Majority (1969)
Mediacracy: American Parties and Politics in the Communications Age (1974)
Electoral Reform and Voter Participation (with Paul H. Blackman, 1975)
Post-Conservative America (1982)
Staying on Top: The Business Case for a National Industrial Strategy (1984)
The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath (1990)
Boiling Point: Democrats, Republicans, and the Decline of Middle Class Prosperity (1993)
Arrogant Capital: Washington, Wall Street and the Frustration of American Politics (1994)
The Cousins’ Wars: Religion, Politics and the Triumph of Anglo-America (1999)
William McKinley (2003)
Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich (2002) ISBN 0-7679-0533-4
American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush (2004) ISBN 0-670-03264-6
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century (2006) ISBN 0-670-03486-X
Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism (2007) ISBN 0-670-01907-0
1775: A Good Year for Revolution (2012) ISBN 978-0-670-02512-1

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Phillips_(political_commentator)