wavered somewhat as areas such as Harlem and majority African-American wards in

St. Louis and Detroit posted gains for the Republicans but maintained their

Democratic majorities.31 Conservative Republicans appealed to suburban voters

twenty-five years before historians had previously thought.

 Communist subversion made an effective campaign issue for the GOP and

served as the launching point for a number of attacks on Democratic policies. This

rhetorical device, however, would not remain the theme of the Republican Party for

long. After the election, Reece touted the victory as a mandate against a centralized

government and the Democratic Party, but downplayed communism. After November

1 1946, a majority of the Chairman's Letters publicized the Republican legislative

program and administration shortcomings in areas such as economics and labor but

did not mention subversion. The August 1 1947 Chairman's Letter, for example,

listed the communism issue as the fourth most important concern for the Republican

Congress behind the budget, tax reduction and labor policy.32 Reece's comments on

the Communist-in-government issue were included as part of a broader legislative

platform, but did not dominate the 80th Congress. The Communist issue gave the Old

Guard a political weapon and indicated their calls for an oppositional campaign

program, but did not serve as their guiding philosophy.

 Reece was not completely obsessed with red-baiting, as McCarthy and others

would become a few years later, but had simply exploited American fears to win an

electoral victory.33 With the election of a Republican Congress and Senate, the onus



31 See Boylan, The New Deal Coalition and the Election of 1946.
32 Republican National Committee, "The Chairman's Letter" 2, no. 5, 1 August 1947. Copy in Reece
Papers.

33 Historians have studied the McCarthy period intensely since the 1960s. For more, see Earl Latham,
The Communist Conspiracy in Washington: From the New Deal to McCarthy (Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press, 1966); Michael Paul Rogin, The Intellectuals and McCarthy: The Radical