House
Popular Vote |
| Year | Dems | Reps |
| 1942 | 46.1% | 50.6% |
| 1944 | 50.6% | 47.2% |
| 1946 | 44.3% | 53.5% |
| 1948 | 51.2% | 45.4% |
| 1950 | 48.9% | 48.9% |
| 1952 | 49.2% | 49.3% |
| 1954 | 52.1% | 47.0% |
| 1956 | 50.7% | 48.7% |
| 1958 | 55.5% | 43.6% |
| 1960 | 54.3% | 44.8% |
| 1962 | 52.1% | 47.1% |
| 1964 | 56.9% | 42.4% |
| 1966 | 50.5% | 48.0% |
| 1968 | 50.0% | 48.2% |
| 1970 | 53.0% | 44.5% |
| 1972 | 51.7% | 46.4% |
| 1974 | 57.1% | 40.5% |
| 1976 | 55.5% | 44.7% |
| 1978 | 53.4% | 44.7% |
| 1980 | 50.3% | 47.6% |
| 1982 | 54.1% | 43.4% |
| 1984 | 51.9% | 46.8% |
| 1986 | 50.1% | 47.6% |
| 1988 | 53.2% | 45.3% |
| 1990 | 52.0% | 43.9% |
| 1992 | 49.9% | 44.8% |
| 1994 | 44.0% | 49.9% |
| 1996 | 48.1% | 47.8% |
| 1998 | 47.1% | 48.0% |
| 2000 | 47.0% | 47.3% |
| 2002 | 45.0% | 49.6% |
| 2004 | 46.6% | 49.2% |
| 2006 | 52.0% | 44.1% |
| 2008 | 53.0% | 44.2% |
| When it comes to winning a popular vote majority in the House, Republicans give Cubs fans something to laugh about. And that's probably the nicest thing one can possibly say about them.
Of course, there is a sense in which one really can say that America is a center-right nation: we are the only advanced industrial nation without a left/labor party represented in our national legislature. In international terms, the Democrats are a centrist party, and the Republicans are a party of the right. So in that sense, it's perfectly true that "America is a center right nation."
But what bearing does that have on political discussions internal to the American political system? When does the punditalkcrazy ever use international frameworks of comparison to talk about American politics? Doesn't happen.
And certainly shouldn't happen in the current context. All that matters in the current context is whether it's true that "Obama pushing a progressive agenda would result in the Republicans regaining power, because that's where the American public sits on a long-term basis, and this one election doesn't change that undelying fact." This is the only sensible meaning that can possibly attach to the claim that "America is a center right nation" that is currently being bandied about. And that's not bloody likely given the figures in the table to left.
Although the Republicans did manage to gain control of the House in 1994, and held onto it for 5 more elections, they never managed to win a popular vote majority in the House. And that was even with the Democrats myopically refusing to run vigorous, well-funded campaigns in all but a handful of GOP-held districts. If America really were a center-right nation, then the GOP-run House should have been racking up at least 53-55% margins in at least two or three of those elections. But they came nowhere close to that. The only time they've done that--cracked 53%--since the 1920s was in 1946, when WWII had just ended, and the American people were siezed with an irrational longing to go back to the good old days, and voted Republicans for "a return to normalcy." Well, two years of "normalcy" was all the American people could stand, and a majority of them have never voted for House Republicans since then.
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