Rockefeller's subsequent divorce of his wife and 1963
marriage to the much - younger Margaretta «
Happy» Murphy, a mother of four who had recently divorced her husband, cemented in the minds of many family - minded Americans an unpleasant nexus between loose morals and weak support for the military; it marked the
forging of a large wedge of voters that now consciously identified itself as conservative and would grow to include Democrats as well as Republicans.