More than ever, national politicians are turning their attention to the suburbs. Just as small towns and big cities once shaped American life, the latest census indicates half the U. S. population now lives in suburbia. The `burbs will get most of the redistricted congressional seats next year.
In the past, politicians and social commentators took the pulse of the nation by asking a simple question: "Will it play in Peoria?" So where is the epicenter of the current political universe, the new Peoria of American politics? Would you believe 42 miles due east of Manhattan, hard by the Great South Bay of Long Island? "Massapequa--America's new hometown," proclaims New York's Newsday. The 1992 race, predicts The New Republic, will boil down to a titanic battle between George Bush and New York Governor Mario Cuomo for the soul of Massapequa, land of the "angry middle-class homeowner to whom Republicans have pitched their appeal since the days of Richard Nixon."
