(10-27-2019 04:59 PM)bullet Wrote:  https://www.encounterbooks.com/features/how-partisan-polarized-parity-came-into-being/

Excellent non-partisan read on changes in the parties and electorate (or lack thereof) over the last 50 years or so.

"By 1990 it was widely held by political journalists that Republicans had a “lock” on the presidency and Democrats a “lock” on the House of Representatives. Pundits and political scientists identified structural advantages that Republicans had in presidential elections and Democrats in congressional elections—advantages they were confident would persist for years and perhaps decades to come. As it turned out, they didn’t: just when political trends and their causes are identified, they often tend to disappear. I remember speaking to a group of House Democrats in 1990 and arguing that these “locks” might get picked in the coming decade, and so the 1990s might see the election of President Bill Bradley—I, or maybe the country, picked the wrong Bill—and Speaker Newt Gingrich. At that point a groan came from the vicinity of John Dingell, who was on the verge of becoming the longest-serving member of Congress and ended up maintaining that status longer than anyone else in history. Since my talk, Democrats have won four of the seven presidential elections starting in 1992 and Republicans have won majorities in the House of Representatives in ten of thirteen congressional elections starting in 1994. The old “locks” are history...."