Sam Smith
Sam Smith in the Pregressive Review notes a non-reported trend under Clinton:
the disintegration of the Democratic Party itself. An analysis I did in 1998 found that during Clinton’s administration, the Democrats had lost:
- 48 seats in the House
- 8 seats in the Senate
- 11 governorships
- 1,254 state legislative seats
- Control of 9 legislatures
In addition 439 elected Democrats had joined the Republican Party while only three Republican officeholders had gone the other way.
While Democrats had been losing state legislative seats on the state level for 25 years, the loss during the Clinton years was striking. In 1992, the Democrats controlled 17 more state legislatures than the Republicans. After November 2000, the Republicans controlled one more than the Democrats. It was the first time since 1954 that the GOP had controlled more state legislatures than the Democrats (they tied in 1968). Among other things, this gave the Republican more control over redistricting.
In fact, no Democratic president since the 19th century suffered such an electoral disintegration of his party as did Clinton.
Of course his article, The Party’s Over, comes from the opposite of our perspective. But at least he looks at the facts. To me, the most amazing figure is the 439 to 3 re-registration ratio. Has no one done an analysis of the astounding fact that over 99% of party switches of elected officials have been Democrat to Republican? Simply from the standpoint of statistics and probabilities, that is the single most compelling example of free choice moving entirely in one direction.