Thursday, October 07, 2010

Forget 1994. Is it really...1894 all over again?

A history lesson, as most of the mainstream media seems to believe that American history started in 1992:

Michael Barone, co-author of the Almanac of American Politics, says either of the Gallup turnout models would produce "a Republican House majority the likes of which we have not seen since the election cycles of 1946 or even 1928." Mr. Barone says the historical parallel might no longer be 1994, when the GOP gained 54 House seats, but instead 1894, when Republicans gained more than 100 House seats in the middle of the economic downturn that engulfed Democratic President Grover Cleveland.

Jay Cost with some historical parallels:

The 1890s saw a severe economic recession come in 1893, which drove the 100-seat swing in the 1894 midterm. But even prior to the Panic of 1893, the farmers in the Midwest and South were suffering terribly. Overexpansion and a highly competitive global market pushed the prices of wheat, corn, and cotton down to unsustainable levels, and in the midterm of 1890 the country swung heavily to the Democrats, and the Populists won a majority of seats in Nebraska and Kansas.

Just as a nation turned to, and then away from, the "populists" of 2008, the Democrats. Jeez, regardless of the century, these lefties can never get it right, can they?

More
parallels from 1894:

The fragmented and disoriented Democratic Party was crushed everywhere outside the South, losing more than half its seats to the Republican Party. ...The Democrats lost 125 seats in the election while the Republicans gained 130 seats. This makes the 1894 election the largest midterm election victory in the entire history of the United States.

The Democrats tried to raise a religious issue, claiming the GOP was in cahoots with the American Protective Association. The allegations seem to have fallen flat as Catholics moved toward the GOP.

Ah, throwing mud when all else fails. Nothing changes...

And remember, back in 1894, the House only had 357 seats. Apply that same percentage to today's membership and ...oh, wow....

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