Balance of power over time
Posted by gunsoverbutter@reddit | Libertarian | View on Reddit | 35 comments
This is pretty interesting. The balance of power over time shows that the House typically starts to show the desires of the country first, then the Senate, then the presidency.
IanMoone007@reddit
Charts that change axis in the middle of them are awful. The first four lines are blocks of 5 years then it goes to annually
gkcontra@reddit
A little misleading without noting supermajorities. Without that nobody truly has control of anything except the executive branch.
Fl0ppyfeet@reddit
I found a more complete chart. Interestingly 1979 was the last supermajority in either house.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/jun/25/control-house-and-senate-1900/
Thiswas2hard@reddit
Democrats had 60 senators in their caucus in 2009, not sure why your chart does not reflect that
DravenTor@reddit
It's almost like both parties are culpable...
SadTumbleweed1567@reddit
The House gets re-elected in its entirety every two years. The Senate is recomposed by about 1/3rd every 2 years. The Presidency swings every 4 years.
Gladiateher@reddit
It’s pretty interesting how if you look at it in blocks it’s almost perfect diagonal sections that alternate between red and blue, like the US is always chasing something different from the current setup.
gwhh@reddit
You got 2 choices in this country. What do you expect?
not_slaw_kid@reddit
The median voter always blames the current government for whatever the current bad thing is, and there is always a new bad thing.
Trump won in 2016 because democrats got blamed for the refugee crisis. Then Biden won because MAGA got blamed for COVID outbreaks. Then Trump won again because Biden was blamed for all the economic devastation caused by attempts to stop COVID outbreaks.
grot-ivre-1749@reddit
Pendelum Voting is a thing. It’s the interaction between the short term reactive nature of voters, and the long term incentives of politicians re-engineering the voting infrastructure in order to keep power.
Inevitable-Waltz-889@reddit
I don't think you have enough data here to show much actually. It's basically 3 cycles. Maybe take this out another 50 years?
Fl0ppyfeet@reddit
You're gonna see a lot more blue
Full_Ahegao_Drip@reddit
I'm curious what this looks like in multi-party republics.
Fl0ppyfeet@reddit
It's also interesting to look at the 50 years prior to this chart. The US House and Senate had Democratic majorities for 90% of the time 1930-1980. The House of Representatives was blue for almost 40 straight years.
RocksCanOnlyWait@reddit
Mostly the same. Strong third parties don't last outside of localized causes (e.g. Bloc Quebeçois in Canada).
You still need a majority coalition to govern, so third parties end up joining one of the two major parties within the government. Eventually the major parties absorb enough of the third party that the third party is no longer relevant in the election. Ideally this happens because the major party altered a stance to be in line with a third party.
Though in some cases the second largest party is a near permanent minority, so the chart would be all one color.
WhatRUsernamesUsed4@reddit
what a weird time scale. Every 5 years from 1980 to 2000 then a sudden switch to every year. Why even include years without elections? Of course '26 is the same as '25, there's been no election to change it. You could eliminate every odd year and lose half the clutter.
markuspeloquin@reddit
2001
sonnyfab@reddit
Why the fuck are the top 5 bullets the same amount of time as the last 25? How is that supposed to be useful?
Business_Boat3201@reddit
OMG Trump is the worst!
sevenstaves@reddit
The house is only blue 38% of the time, the other two (Senate and President) are more at parity.
jacobeam13@reddit
Can someone who isn’t too lazy line this up with the start of economic downturns and foreign conflicts?
CrashInto_MyArms@reddit
I’d like to know that too, but am lazy
jacobeam13@reddit
Off to chat GPT we go….
Live_Taste_7796@reddit
How were your findings?
CattrahM@reddit
That’s good data to overlay. Please. Some non lazy person, help us visualize this data!
thom_mayy@reddit
Republican president with majority House the past 40 years
DoctorTim007@reddit
Cool now add a symbol if they are owned by aipac.
cmparkerson@reddit
Its interesting that when the opposing party of the president takes over the congress. the president is either a one term president or that presidents incumbent party loses.after 2 terms
BlueOmicronpersei8@reddit
This is how it was designed.
The house has more representatives and they're up for election every two years. So they are supposed to be the quickest changing.
The Senate has 6 year terms so only a third of the Senate is up for election every two years.
The presidency has a shorter 4 year term, but there's nothing that changes during those 4 years.
fpssledge@reddit
"balance of power"
Still super annoying to me that red/blue voting is held as a balance of power in our govt. Separation of powers is supposed to function differently.
Also usually these people pass the baton down the road to serfdom. They're rarely actually keeping each other in check other than congressional gridlock.
MakinBaconOnTheBeach@reddit
And (almost) all of them want to send us to war, increase social programs and taxes, and implement more regulations
Melodic_Arachnid_134@reddit
Don’t forget add to the debt
thom_mayy@reddit
Yeah, Republican majority power. This govt and its debt is Republican policy
Crazy_names@reddit
The pendulum swings...
Norseman103@reddit
It’s almost as if neither party does anything good for the country when they have total control and then we try the other party again. What a great system we have. /s