How often has the United States shifted back and forth between political parties? And how long has one party held office? To get some historic perspective during this election hullabaloo, I made a timeline plotting out the political parties of all the U.S. Presidents, as well as the dominant party in Congress:

It’s a Skittle bag of colors! After stints and blips of various parties in the first century, it’s strictly been a two-player game since 1869. Since then, the ball has been passed between Democrats and Republicans 14 times (10 since 1900). The longest period in the Presidency goes to the Democrats with a 20-year reign from 1933 to 1953 (three terms of Roosevelt and two terms of Truman). And the longest period of a one-party dominant Congress goes to the Democrats with 26 years from 1955 to 1981.

These are substantial chunks of time, but all in all, our Presidents have come from both sides. Since 1900, we’ve had 15 Republicans and 12 Democrats in office. And to complicate things, the parties themselves have changed over time. So just when you think we’re all going to be burning our bras or teaching our kids that Jesus invented people, the system shifts back…

Sources:
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Senate
EnchantedLearning

October 2008