Number of times in past century the WH shifted from Democrat to Republican

December 12, 2016

[SamAdams76]

Just an oddball thought I had today as I contemplated the young snowflakes still having a meltdown over Trump's victory. I came to realize that for the typical college student, they likely have no memory of the last time the White House shifted from Democrat to Republican control.

For most of us alive today, this has only happened two or three times.

The last time of course that the White House changed hands from Democrat to Republican was in 2000, when George W. Bush eked out an extremely narrow victory (just 537 votes in FL!) over Al Gore.

It was a heartbreaking defeat for Democrats but it was 16 years ago and beyond the memory of most college students, who were little more than toddlers back then, oblivious to the outside world and toddling about the house with sippy cups and footsie pajamas while waiting for mommy to put on a Barney the Dinosaur video. For some college students, that still happens today! But I digress...

My point is, this is the very first time that college students have experienced a Republican taking over the White House and so I understand this can be a very scary and disorienting experience for them, being how they have been sheltered their whole lives and brainwashed by their liberal schoolteachers and professors that conservatives are "evil" and must be feared.

Now interestingly enough, while the transfer of presidential power between Billy Clinton and George W. Bush occurred 16 years ago, you have to go back an additional 20 YEARS to the last time that the White House shifted hands from a Democrat to a Republican.

Back in 1980, Ronald Reagan - another bogeyman of the Left - soundly defeated Jimmy Carter, triggering an entire generation of Baby Boomer liberals, who are now in their 50s and 60s! Yes, if you were a 22 year old college senior in 1980, you are nearly 60 years old today.

So it can be said that the majority of people alive today can only remember TWICE when a Democrat president handed the reins to a Republican. When you think about it, that is quite an amazing thing.

Now if you want to go back even further, you have to go back nearly a half century to the year 1968, when Lyndon Johnson handed things off to Richard Nixon. Speaking for myself, I was only 6 years old and so I don't remember that election at all. I was more concerned about my own sippy cup back then and was looking forward to seeing Mr. Rogers or Captain Kangaroo on the TV. The 1972 election, when I was 10, was the first election I can remember.

Now if you were 22 years old in 1968 and lucky enough to be a college student listening to Jimi Hendrix and tripping out on LSD as opposed to fighting in the jungles of Vietnam, you would be 70 years old today, the same age as our President Elect!

Now if you are really an old-timer who can remember when Harry Truman gave way to Dwight Eisenhower back in 1952, you would likely be at least in your mid 80s today. Congratulations if you can remember the past four times that a Republican took the White House from a Democrat!

I'm doubting that anybody is still around today that can remember back in 1920 when Warren Harding took over from Woodrow Wilson. You would have to be well over 100 years old to remember that. Maybe some of you real old timers were babies back in 1920.

So to sum up, here are the last five times a Democrat gave way to a Republican in the White House - doesn't happen as often as one might think:

2000 - Billy Clinton to George W. Bush
1980 - Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan
1968 - Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon
1952 - Harry Truman to Dwight Eisenhower
1920 - Woodrow Wilson to Warren Harding

2016 - Barack Obama to Donald J Trump

[ari-freedom]

Did you even have sippy cups in those days? I think they came out in the late 80’s

[SSS Two]

Since WW2, the political party of the president switches every eight years. The only exceptions to this are:

1. Democrats held the presidency for only four years 1977-1981. Because Carter was so bad, voters refused to re-elect him.

2. Republicans held the presidency for twelve years 1981-1993. Because Reagan was so good, voters rewarded him with a third term served by GHW Bush.

[SamAdams76]

There were definitely sippy cups when I was growing up. Maybe not the Tupperware ones we know today with the spout built into the lid. I remember them with the straw part built into the cup itself - looking something like this.

[Wilhelm Tell]

I kind of remember the 1972 election - pretty good for a 10 year old child. The earliest big political/diplomatic event I followed with interest was Nixon’s trip to China. Somehow that captured my imagination (I remember several years later, felling happy that Mao died). I remember the 1976 election well. I watched Reagan’s concession speech when Ford won the Republican ticket. I was happy to finally be old enough to vote for Reagan in 1980.

[dfwgator]

I remember being happy when Carter won in 1976. What can I say, I was young at the time, I learned my lesson.

[lacrew]

Bonus question:

When is the last time a losing democrat conceded with grace, on election night?

HRC...nope
Lurch Kerry - waited til next day
AlGore - took weeks

You have to go back to 1988, over a quarter century ago.

So, naturally Chris Wallace asked the Republican if he would accept the outcome.

[ari-freedom]

Those are just cups with straws...whole point of a sippy cup is that you don’t have to worry about spills when (not if) they knock them over :)

[InABunkerUnderSF]

We have not had a "normal" transition of power from Democrats to Republicans since the 1980 election. The last two have been attended with drama, recounts and a total lack of grace.

Of course none of this compares with the first transition of power from Democrats to Republicans in 1860 when they started a civil war that killed 620,000 people and destroyed about half the country. The Democrats have always been really sore losers.

[lacrew]

I remember my teachers in 1980 being despondent. They really thought the world had come to an end.

[SaxxonWoods]

I’m 67 and started paying attention to politics early as I had relatives working in D.C. The other interesting thing is that in my lifetime there have only been two times when either party didn’t pass of the Presidency to the other after 8 years.

Carter bombed in 1980 after one term. Even my lifelong Democrat mother called him “pathetic”.

Reagan had enough popularity as he left to sweep G Bush the Elder into office in ‘88. But Bush lost in 92 to the then fresh-faced Clinton, thanks to Perot.

[ari-freedom]

I can’t really blame algore. It was a really close election that we had to fight for. Then he walked away and we never heard from him again...until just a few days ago in Trump Tower!

[SamAdams76]

I too remember the Nixon trip to China in 1972. I was still 9 years old at the time but it was a big, big deal at the time and it dominated the news. I remember something about panda bears coming back with Mrs. Nixon.

It was around that time that I started really paying attention to current events, a habit I still have all these years later. I was probably one of the only 12 year olds in America that could discuss Watergate with the adults back in 1974.

[SamAdams76]

Me too. I was delivering the Boston Herald Traveler back then. Back when they still let young boys deliver newspapers before and after school. I would always read the paper thoroughly for free before delivering them. I remember delivering the papers the morning after election day with a spring in my step. Carter seemed a breath of fresh air. What did I know? I was just starting high school and still naive in many ways.

[Theoria]

Thanks to Perot? It is/was because of the GOP. Perot was a gungrabber but he pointed out the flaws with the GOP concerning trade and the national debt, part of which today helped elected DJT.

[SamAdams76]

I would have gotten that one right. Michael Dukakis, for all his faults, was gracious in his concession speech and we never really heard from him since, which is the way it should be. It was a fairly nasty campaign too. Lee Atwater was a pit bull as Bush’s campaign manager.

[lacrew]

“I can’t really blame algore.”

Really? Cherry picking Rat counties to recount (at the end of a judges order) was ok for you?

[Rurudyne]

Carter was the old Democrat party pushing back against the McGovernites but the weasels had thoroughly wormed their way into the mechanisms of the DNC and would not be dislodged. They crippled Carter’s administration since he could not trust his own party (think of it as the opposite issue we now face with the DNC: whose minions and supporters slavishly trust whomever it says they should), not even his own allies.

After Carter the DNC was purged of many people who might resist compromise with so-called “progressivism” as they left for the Republicans (and consequently helped to reign in the leftist in the RNC).

Carter’s election was a good thing. It stopped the DNC, not its eventual slide into madness (for that it eventually hastened), but it’s rise to be a greater menace through the 80s and 90s. Had Ford been elected the DNC would have had those 4 years to corrupt and cajole many of the folks who in real life had fled to the Republicans.

[Rurudyne]

I was a few years behind you so in cannot make that boast.

Nixon was wrong to save the ChiComs from themselves. Two drowning men, clinging to each other, will drown faster than just one treading water.

[dfwgator]

1976 was the last gasp of the Southern Democrat. We’ll never see a Democratic sweep of the South like that again.