With Steve “Multishirt” Bannon appearing on Bill “Please Don’t Disappear Me, Dear Leader” Maher’s show boldly predicting that Donald Trump will run for and be elected to a third unconstitutional term, I’m remined of a horrible revelation I made back in February when I recoiled at the photo of Joe “No, Seriously, He’s a Fascist” Biden welcoming seriously the fascist into the Oval Office for a photo.
When was the last time there was a Democratic President handing over the Oval Office to a Democratic President-Elect?
In my lifetime, it is easy to recall the last time a Republican President handed over the Oval Office to a Republican President-Elect: it was Ronald Reagan completing eight years of rule and turning it over to his Vice President George H.W. Bush to rule for another four.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there has never been a dozen years (three straight terms) of Democratic presidents in my lifetime. Two terms of Bill Clinton were supposed to be handed over to Vice President Al Gore, at least according everyone but five members of the Supreme Court. Two terms of Barack Obama were supposed to be handed over to Hillary Clinton, at least according to three million more popular votes.
That’s not to say that there haven’t been Democratic presidents who follow Democratic presidents. Lyndon B. Johnson followed John F. Kennedy and Harry S. Truman followed Franklin D. Roosevelt. But in both of those cases, a Democratic president did not hand over power to a Democratic president-elect; rather, the Grim Reaper handed power over to a Democratic vice president. Who then failed to hand over power to another Democrat.
Why can’t a sitting Democratic President generate the momentum to get the next Democrat elected?
The five-term span between Franklin D. Roosevelt (elected four times, died early in 4th term) and Harry S. Truman (served remainder of FDR’s 4th plus elected to his own full term) is the only period since the Civil War when Democrats have kept the Oval Office for a dozen years or more. That twenty years rescued us from the Depression, created the New Deal social safety net, won us World War II, set the dollar as the global reserve currency, and established the global Pax Americana—you know, everything Trump has taken 80 days to destroy. Democrats had so successfully transformed the country that the 22nd Amendment was quickly ratified to ensure we could never have a three-term president again—until, of course, the Supreme Court finds a way to wriggle Trump out of the 22nd Amendment.
To find a living Democratic president handing over the Oval Office to his elected Democratic successor, we have to go all the way back to the two presidents right before the Civil War: Franklin Pierce, elected in 1852, served one term and was followed by James Buchanan, elected in 1856. Two of the presidents considered, pre-Trump I and Trump II, to be two of the worst to ever serve, whose failed leadership hastened the beginning of the Civil War.
Still, that’s just eight straight years of Democratic presidents. To find twelve years of unbroken Democratic leadership, we have to go all the way back to two-term Andrew Jackson, elected in 1828, who was succeeded by one-term Martin Van Buren, elected in 1836. Republicans didn’t even exist yet; Democrats were winning elections against Whigs.
In other words: Aside from Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Republican Party has never lost three presidential elections in a row.
In fact, The Republicans have been quite good at stringing together terms. Before the twelve years of Reagan/Bush, there was the twelve-year span of 1920–1932 preceding Roosevelt, with Republican presidents Harding (elected 1920, died in office), Coolidge (assumed office in 1923, elected 1924), and Hoover (elected 1928). There was also the sixteen-year span of 1896–1912, with Republican presidents McKinley (elected 1896 & 1900, assassinated), Teddy Roosevelt (assumed office in 1901, elected 1904), and Taft (elected 1908). And there is another sixteen-year span of 1868–1884, with Republican presidents Grant (elected 1868 & 1872), Hayes (elected 1876), Garfield (elected 1880, assassinated), and Arthur (assumed office 1881).
So, yes, it is absolutely critical that the Democrats win the 2028 presidential election. But let’s hope that, for the first time in two hundred years, they go on to win the next two elections after that. It’s going to take a dozen years or more of unbroken Democratic rule to fix everything that King Felon I will have destroyed by then.
