Since 1945 and the reelection of FDR, for the third time, to the presidency, the Democrats have been in control of the U.S. House of Representatives almost 4 times longer (3.7 times to be exact) than have the Republicans. Since 1945, the Democrats have also been in control of the U.S. Senate twice as long (2.3 times longer) than have the Republicans. After President Obama finishes his term of office in 2012, the Republicans will have controlled the White House for only one term (4 years) longer than have the Democrats.
Since 1945, the Democratic Party has simultaneously controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate, for a total of 22 years, which is five and a half times longer than the Republicans have. Since 1945, there was only one Republican President (George W. Bush, 2003 to 2006) whose party was the majority party in the House and Senate.
Since 1945, three major wars erupted, or were already under way, when Democratic presidents were in office: WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. By the way. WW I also occurred under a Democratic president and the Civil War, which was America's bloodiest war, was fought as a result of the Democratic Party's secession from the U.S. and its insistence that slavery remain legal throughout the southern U.S. Two wars since 1945 erupted under Republican presidents: The Gulf War in 1991 and the Gulf War in 2003. In both of the Gulf Wars, there were no where near the amount of American casualties as there were as a result of the wars that began under Democratic administrations.
Prior to 1945, and beginning officially in August 1929, the Great Depression began under a Republican president, Herbert Hoover, and a Republican controlled House and Senate. The Great Depression lasted 11 years and 7 months. It ended, officially, in March 1942 during the height of WWII. For nine years during the Great Depression (1933-1942) FDR together with the Democrat controlled House and Senate presided over the worst economic downturn in American history. FDR and the Democrats tried everything that they could during the nine years that they were in control of the government to pull America from the depths of the Great depression to no avail. The only thing that pulled America out of the depression was WWII. Indeed, it can be said that WWII and FDR's consequent policies sowed the seeds and paved the way for the American Military Industrial Complex.
The United States has experienced 12 recessions since 1945. The current recession, which began under George W. Bush in December 2007 and under a Democrat controlled House and Senate, is termed by some as the Great Recession. Indeed, it has been going on for 2 years and 8 months. With the exception of the Great Depression, it is the longest economic downturn in U.S. history.
Forgetting about the Great Depression, which a Democratic President, House, and Senate presided over for nine years, nine of the 12 U.S. recessions since 1945 began under a Republican President. Those nine recessions, if added up, lasted 101 months. Under Democratic Presidents since 1945 (and this includes the 22 months of the current recession under Obama) the total recession duration is 47 months. In other words, it would be accurate to state that since 1945, recessions have lasted 2.15 times longer under Republican Presidents than under Democratic Presidents. It would also be accurate to state that, with the exception of the March-November 2001 recession, the Democrats were in control of the House for 93 out of the 101 months of recessions that Republican Presidents presided over. It would also be accurate to state that, out of the 101 months of recessions that a Republican President presided over, the Democrats controlled both the House and Senate for 67 of those months.
In theory and in simple and very general terms, the U.S. Government consists of three separate but equal branches: The executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The legislative branch writes the laws and passes the laws. The judicial branch interprets the laws and determines whether they conform to the Constitution. The executive branch formulates policy, sees that the laws are enforced, and vetoes legislation that Congress has passed if not in agreement with the legislation.
There are many more political facts that can be stated here, but for the sake of brevity, I only touched upon a few that most Americans don't seem to be aware of in terms of their government. The point of this piece, for those of you that don't get it and don't want to get it, because your head is full of PC and/or ideological and partisan crap and conditioning, is simply this: You need to take off your ideological blinders, take a long step back, take a deep breath, purge your long-ingrained biases and prejudices, and take a good, long, thoughtful look, at the big American political picture. You also need to brush up on your American history. Given all of the above historical facts in regard to what the Democrats and Republicans have been up to, both together and separately, since the end of WWII, it is completely irrational and self-destructive for any American to put their faith in one political party over the other.
And faith--blind faith at that and no different from religious zealotry and fanaticism----is all that dyed-in-the-wool political ideologues, whether they be Democrats or Republicans, are basing their political choices and votes upon. There is absolutely no empirical, factual, and statistical evidence to support the assertion that one of the two major American political parties, left to its own devices, has benefited the American people as a whole, any more or any less than the other major political party. Certainly one can make the argument that the Democrats and the Republicans both benefit certain special interest groups or particular socio-economic segments and subgroups of the American population. But a narrow special-interest benefit bestowed upon a narrow segment and sub-group of the American population by one of the two major American political parties is a far cry from benefiting American society as a whole.
The political and social ideologues will forever remain ideologues for many reasons. One reason is that many--if not most--ideologues suffer from various forms of mental illness and emotional distress. Some of them simply engage in transference (Transference is a phenomenon in psychoanalysis characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another) and projection (Psychological projection or projection bias (including Freudian Projection) is the unconscious act of denial of a person's own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, such as to the weather, the government, a tool, or to other people).
If America does, in fact, need saving, then the only ones that can save it are the American people themselves. And the only way that they can begin saving America is to first take off their ideological blinders and stop picking and choosing political leaders out of the narrow ideological ranks as if they were picking out a tube of toothpaste off a supermarket shelf. Indeed many more American voters than not need to undertake a little political and historical research, start thinking for themselves, and look at the big picture and what the future holds instead of focusing on which politician or political party makes them feel good for the moment and tells them what they want to hear. But above all, stop believing in and putting your faith in false political prophets and saviors and don't listen to the propaganda. American politicians have gotten away with manipulating and dividing the American people for way too long . . . .
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