How often has the United States shifted back and forth between political parties? How long has one party held office? To get some historic perspective during the Oct 2008 election freak-out, Candy made a timeline plotting out the political parties of all the U.S. Presidents, as well as the dominant parties in Congress (Senate and House of Representatives):
After 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.
All in all, our Presidents have come from both sides. Since 1900, we’ve had 15 Republicans and 12 Democrats in office. During that time the President has been paired with a Congress dominated by the same party for 62 years and a Congress that is half or fully dominated by the other party for 44 years. 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 schoolchildren that Jesus invented people, the system seems to shift back.
November 3, 2010 update:
Does this really look like End of Days? See Clinton’s Congress.
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