The author discusses the nature of party identification and concludes that its characterization as a running tally of short-term forces that influences it’s formation and change profoundly underestimate the stability of party identification. The argument is that the period from the early 1960’s to the mid-1980’s has produced generation effects that have altered the basic parameters of the American National politics. The author studies the influence of the events of the past three decades on the political involvement of the younger generation and the finds that the post-New Deal generation contributed to the diminishing of the partisanship in the electorate, to the national decline in turnout and to a realignment of the social foundations of Democratic and Republican parties.