>It's arguable that a lot of this is just a wave of echoes from the Reconstruction after the Civil War, which was unprecedented in a lot of ways (the rise of the central executive using what was unquestionably force to suppress rebellion and secession; the breaking of the institution of slavery on a national scale; the deliberate and callous humbling of the losers in the war), and merely delayed until the 1980s because of the two World Wars and Vietnam.
It wasn't so much "delayed" so much as faded over time without completely subsiding until, as the post-WWII realignment of the major parties progressed, it eventually became political useful for one of them to deliberately expend resources and propaganda efforts to fan it, starting with Nixon's "Southern Strategy".
It wasn't so much "delayed" so much as faded over time without completely subsiding until, as the post-WWII realignment of the major parties progressed, it eventually became political useful for one of them to deliberately expend resources and propaganda efforts to fan it, starting with Nixon's "Southern Strategy".