Chrissy’s Site Btes: http://news.webshots.com/photo/2400358550056011884uuWArj
Click on graphic to embiggen.
Breakdown by political affiliation for those who chose Big Business OOPS! GOVERNMENT as “biggest threat to the nation”
Most current results (percent change since 2009 poll on same issue)
Republicans: 82% (+2); Independents 64% (+5); Democrats 48% (+16)
UPDATE: Dec 14th. Sorry ’bout that.
Filed under Democrats, Republicans
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polination.blog 
Chrissy,
I’ve been away for a while, but just checking back in…
I like the way your graphic shows the bar at the bottom representing party control of the House, Senate, and Presidency. Basically, since 1965 majority control (2+ out of 3) has been:
Jan 1965 – Jan 1981 Democrat
Jan 1981 – Jan 1989 Republican
Jan 1989 – Jan 1995 Democrat
Jan 1995 – Jan 2007 Republican
Jan 2007 – Present Democrat
I’d say that the economy did a lot better Republican control than under Democrat control.
I’ve probably missed it, but have you done a chart showing unemployment rate vs. party in control, or a chart showing national debt vs. party in control?
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Actually, the Senate flipped to Democrats in the 1986 elections (87-88 calendar years), so those years go blue.
And I looked back and found that the Democrat majority began in 1955…
So, since 1955 majority control (2+ out of 3) has been:
Jan 1955 – Jan 1981 Democrat
Jan 1981 – Jan 1987 Republican
Jan 1987 – Jan 1995 Democrat
Jan 1995 – Jan 2007 Republican
Jan 2007 – Present Democrat
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THANK YOU! Red, you are such a peach for catching my booboos. :))) When you have some time and if you have the inclination, could you give a gander to my Civics Lessons album?
http://news.webshots.com/album/579941589tHqklm
I fixed the 100th congress. I’m using these images as my quick reference for doing those red and blue bars on graphs and I would GREATLY appreciate your eagle eye to find any other goofs before I go making any more graphs.
I’m thinking a series … I could make a template for the years with the backgrounds done in pale blue or pale red, then overlay any kind of graph you and I (anyone else like to research this stuff??) can find.
Maybe make it into a little slide show or movie file that’s small enough to email so maybe it could go viral.
Can you see it … where the background stays exactly the same and the graphs fade in and out so you can see in maybe a minute or less how various aspects of the economy, debt, unemployment, etc relate to which party has 2 out of 3? I just bought the rights to a dozen music tracks for just this kind of thing.
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The first time I went to that link, one of those bogus virus scan things came up. I closed that window, tried the link again, and the second time up fine with your album and a Classmates.com advertisement. I’m assuming that the first time must have been a malicious advertisement that paid its way onto webshots.com. Nothing that you or I can do about that, but I just wanted to let you know. Never trust those bogus virus scan hoaxes, as they will install a REAL virus on your PC if you don’t close it.
As to the picts, I find this one a bit challenging to follow because the boxes at the bottom don’t flow linearly left to right in a timeline:
http://news.webshots.com/photo/2288781170056011884COfENg
(Also, that pict has the Senate as Republican for the last two years of Reagan’s presidency, but it was Democrat for those years.)
I’m thinking it would be good to have something similar to the following two graphs, but have just one graph that is collored for the party that controlled a majority (2+ out of 3) of the House, Senate, and Presidency:
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Yikes. That is a confusing graphic .. I made it and I can’t figure it out which is really pathetic LOL I deleted it from my Site Bites.
Good thing happened next … I tried to clean it up and realized I’d mucked the original up too much so it’d be easier to just go get it again. When i went there, I found a link to this TREASURE TROVE of graphs!!
http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/
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Ah, I don’t think I’m allowed to have “img” tags… here are the direct links to the graphs I’m talking about…
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Thanks! Those are seriously confusing graphs. I am printing them out though, since it will help me to study them, figure out what works and what does not work.
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One other thing… both of those graphs include a “Party in White House” bar across the top…
That bar is correct on the Senate graph, but it is incorrect on the House graph (which gets the party wrong in 1889-1893, 1893-1897, and 1909-1913.
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Okay … just to reassure me before I go making my template … are all the “United States Congress” graphics correct now? I want to use the party symbol for House and Senate majorities to guide my template colors. I fixed the two you caught for me:
100th
http://news.webshots.com/photo/2908505690056011884srXexs
107th
http://news.webshots.com/photo/2832110630056011884PKoSNY
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Technically speaking, Senator Jeffords switched from Republican to “Independent”, but caucused and voted with the Democrats, so the majority was 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans, 1 “Independent”.
But it’s not far from the truth of the matter to say 51 Democrats – 49 Republicans. Jeffords appears to have always been a Democrat at heart, and was only wearing the RINO clothing… until the time came when taking off the RINO clothing would actually benefit the Democrats.
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I don’t know if this will come out OK in a comment, but here’s what I’ve got…
Year
Congress
President
Senate
House
Who gets “credit”? (Who controls >= 2 of the 3?)
Year
1855
34th
D
D
D
D
1855
1857
35th
D
D
D
D
1857
1859
36th
D
D
R
D
1859
1861
37th
R
R
R
R
1861
1863
38th
R
R
R
R
1863
1865
39th
D
R
R
R
1865
1867
40th
D
R
R
R
1867
1869
41st
R
R
R
R
1869
1871
42nd
R
R
R
R
1871
1873
43rd
R
R
R
R
1873
1875
44th
R
R
D
R
1875
1877
45th
R
R
D
R
1877
1879
46th
R
D
D
D
1879
1881
47th
R
R
R
R
1881
1883
48th
R
R
D
R
1883
1885
49th
D
R
D
D
1885
1887
50th
D
R
D
D
1887
1889
51st
R
R
R
R
1889
1891
52nd
R
R
D
R
1891
1893
53rd
D
D
D
D
1893
1895
54th
D
R
R
R
1895
1897
55th
R
R
R
R
1897
1899
56th
R
R
R
R
1899
1901
57yh
R
R
R
R
1901
1903
58th
R
R
R
R
1903
1905
59th
R
R
R
R
1905
1907
60th
R
R
R
R
1907
1909
61st
R
R
R
R
1909
1911
62nd
R
R
D
R
1911
1913
63rd
D
D
D
D
1913
1915
64th
D
D
D
D
1915
1917
65th
D
D
R
D
1917
1919
66th
D
R
R
R
1919
1921
67th
R
R
R
R
1921
1923
68th
R
R
R
R
1923
1925
69th
R
R
R
R
1925
1927
70th
R
R
R
R
1927
1929
71st
R
R
R
R
1929
1931
72nd
R
R
R
R
1931
1933
73rd
D
D
D
D
1933
1935
74th
D
D
D
D
1935
1937
75th
D
D
D
D
1937
1939
76th
D
D
D
D
1939
1941
77th
D
D
D
D
1941
1943
78th
D
D
D
D
1943
1945
79th
D
D
D
D
1945
1947
80th
D
R
R
R
1947
1949
81st
D
D
D
D
1949
1951
82nd
D
D
D
D
1951
1953
83rd
R
R
D
R
1953
1955
84th
R
D
D
D
1955
1957
85th
R
D
D
D
1957
1959
86th
R
D
D
D
1959
1961
87th
D
D
D
D
1961
1963
88th
D
D
D
D
1963
1965
89th
D
D
D
D
1965
1967
90th
D
D
D
D
1967
1969
91st
R
D
D
D
1969
1971
92nd
R
D
D
D
1971
1973
93rd
R
D
D
D
1973
1975
94th
R
D
D
D
1975
1977
95th
D
D
D
D
1977
1979
96th
D
D
D
D
1979
1981
97th
R
R
D
R
1981
1983
98th
R
R
D
R
1983
1985
99th
R
R
D
R
1985
1987
100th
R
D
D
D
1987
1989
101st
R
D
D
D
1989
1991
102nd
R
D
D
D
1991
1993
103rd
D
D
D
D
1993
1995
104th
D
R
R
R
1995
1997
105th
D
R
R
R
1997
1999
106th
D
R
R
R
1999
2001
107th
R
D
R
R
2001
2003
108th
R
R
R
R
2003
2005
109th
R
R
R
R
2005
2007
110th
R
D
D
D
2007
2009
111th
D
D
D
D
2009
2011
112th
D
D
R
D
2011
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Bah! That looks horrible in a comment, but try taking that HTML and put it in a draft post and see if it looks OK when you switch from HTML to Visual…
The bottom line is that the overall party which should get “credit”/”blame” for the following years is:
1861-1879 = R
1879-1881 = D
1881-1885 = R
1885-1889 = D
1889-1893 = R
1893-1895 = D
1895-1913 = R
1913-1919 = D
1919-1933 = R
1933-1947 = D
1947-1949 = R
1949-1953 = D
1953-1955 = R
1955-1981 = D
1981-1987 = R
1987-1995 = D
1995-2007 = R
2007-2013 = D
Over the last 100 years (1912-2011), Democrats held majority control for 63 of those years, and Republicans held majority control for 37 of those years.
And over just the last 50 years (1962-2011), Democrats held majority control for 32 of those years, and Republicans held majority control for 18 of those years.
Democrats have held majority control almost twice as often as Republicans have held majority control. And in the Depression era, Democrats held over 70% of the seats in both houses of Congress. The majority of the “Big Government” programs were put into place under Democrats.
I think that especially over the last 50 years, the years of majority Republican control (1981-1987 and 1995-2007) have been much better than the years of majority Democrat control.
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Wow ………….. I’ve got goosebumps! Thank you SO much, Red!
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You’re welcome. And, speaking of goosebumps, the following video gives me goosebumps…
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Five years ago, the Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and Presidency.
Unemployment (December 2006) was 4.4%
The national debt was under $8.7 Trillion.
It wasn’t Bush and the Republicans who caused unemployment and debt to skyrocket. It was the Democrats who gained majority control in January 2007. This has been a Democrat economy ever since January 2007.
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Clinton wrongly got “credit” for what the Republicans did in 1995-2000, and Bush wrongly got “blame” for what the Democrats did in 2007-2008.
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Here’s a conceptual grouping of all 3… Presidency, Senate, and House.
(I fixed the bar on the House graph where there were errors re: which party controlled the Presidency, then I copied the House graph over the bottom half of the Senate graph).
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I previously gave the run-down of which party had majority control (2+ out of 3), but this graph makes it easier to see when 1 party controlled all three of the entities necessary for budget-making and law-making.
From the Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1861 until the Inauguration of FDR in 1933, Republicans dominated, and it was not uncommon for Republicans to control the House, Senate, and Presidency at the same time. In fact, during that time, there were only two brief windows when Democrats actually controlled all three: 1893-1894, and 1913-1917 (which gave us the Federal Reserve and “Progressive” Income Tax).
From the Inauguration of FDR in 1933 until present, however, Democrats have dominated. From 1933 to 1981, Democrats held majority control for all but 4 of those years!
1933-1947 = D
1947-1949 = R
1949-1953 = D
1953-1955 = R
1955-1981 = D
1981-1987 = R
1987-1995 = D
1995-2007 = R
2007-2013 = D
And now look at how often one party has controlled all three parts:
DDD Jan 1933 – Jan 1947 (14 years!)
DDD Jan 1949 – Jan 1953 (4 years)
DDD Jan 1961 – Jan 1969 (8 years)
DDD Jan 1977 – Jan 1981 (4 years)
DDD Jan 1993 – Jan 1995 (2 years)
RRR Jan 2003 – Jan 2007 (4 years)
DDD Jan 2009 – Jan 2011 (2 years)
So, of the 80 years from January 1933 – January 2013, Democrats will have held majority control for 58 years and EXCLUSIVE control for 34 years! For the last 80 years, Democrats have held majority control over 70% of the time, and held EXCLUSIVE control over 40% of the time!
Meanwhile, of those same 80 years from January 1933 – January 2013, Republicans will have held majority control for 22 years and EXCLUSIVE control for only 4 years. For the last 80 years, Republicans have held majority control under 30% of the time, and held EXCLUSIVE control only 5% of the time!
Nancy Pelosi loved to spew on and on about the “failed policies” of Republicans, but what happened to unemployment during those 4 years when Republicans held exclusive control? Unemployment dropped from 6.0% to 4.4% (a more than 25% decrease in the unemployment rate).
What happened during the next 4 years, when Nancy Pelosi was Speaker? Unemployment rose from 4.4% to over 10% before declining slightly to 9.4% in her last month as Speaker (the rise from 4.4% to 9.4% is a more than 110% increase in the unemployment rate).
So, tell me again, who has the “failed policies”?!?
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More thoughts…
I think that combined graph helps paint a much more complete picture. I’ve been so used to thinking only about who held the Presidency. And in the post-WWII era we’ve had Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama, so that “feels” balanced between the two parties.
From the Depression to the end of this Congress (1933-2013, 80 years), Democrats held the Presidency for 44 years, and Republicans for 36.
In the Post-FDR era, (1945-2013, 68 years), Democrats held the Presidency for 32 years, and Republicans for 36.
So, that feels balanced. But then one looks at the House and realizes that from 1933 (the inuguration of FDR) until 1995 (the first Clinton “mid-terms”), Democrats held the House of Reprentatives for ALL BUT 2 of those 62 years!
Newt Gingrich helped Republicans take the House in January 1995 (with his “Contract with America”), and Republicans held the house for 12 years. I think that when Nancy Pelosi helped Democrats retake the House in January 2007 (with her “A NEW DIRECTION FOR AMERICA”), she thought that Democrats would once again control the House for 40+ years. Thank God we were able to return the House to Republican control in January 2011. No matter what you think of Boehner, he is so much better than what would have happened if Pelosi had remained Speaker and part of a Democrat 3-way hold on the Presidency, Senate, and House.
Pelosi presided over the shortest duration of Democrat control of the House since 1891-1895.
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“I think that combined graph helps paint a much more complete picture. I’ve been so used to thinking only about who held the Presidency.”
Yes, me too. I think this is why your idea to do this has had such an impact on the people I’ve showed it to. (Me included.) It paints a MUCH more realistic picture.
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Red … you are a gem!! I’m going to print all this out and study it. Dearest is really interested in this project and is good with data. Me, I get confused easily, but I’m strong on graphics. With your data, his architect’s brain and my knack with pretty colors, we should end up with something really good. AND you gave me the title. Who has the failed policies?
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Chrissy,
Thank you for your kind words. It’s definitely a team effort, and we all contribute what we can. I’m not very good at the graphics, so I love what you’re able to do with them!
It’s amazing to me what the Propaganda machine of the “Progressive” Democrats and MSM did in 2007-2008. They created problems, blamed Bush and Republicans for those problems, and then were rewarded with huge electoral wins in 2008 so that in 2009 they held the Presidency, the House, and a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate.
If anyone wants to see the true face of today’s Democrat[ic Socialist] Party, all they have to do is look at what the Democrat[ic Socialist]s did in 2009-2010 when they had virtually unchecked power.
In 2010, Harry Reid used the budget reconciliation reconciliation process to pass Obamacare, but not a budget!
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Take particular note of the slope of that graph during the following periods:
1987-1995 = D
1995-2007 = R
2007-2013 = D
Do you see how the Republican Congress that was elected in 1994 and sworn in January 1995 decreased that slope during the 12 years they held majority control? Do you see how many years we stayed in the range between $5 – 6 Trillion? And do you see how, once the Democrats took majority control in January 2007 the slope went nearly vertical again as the Democrats produced annual deficits of approximately $1.3 Trillion each and every year?
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I keep forgetting that I can’t include images with the img tag.
Here is the link to the graph I’m talking about..
http://s.michellemalkin.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/chart2.bmp
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The 7 most illuminating economic charts of 2011
By James Pethokoukis
December 23, 2011, 12:11 pm
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