1966 VS. 2010
There are some interesting parallels in this mid-term election and the mid-term election of 1966. For those of us who remember, in 1964 Lyndon Johnson won a landslide election over Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. In 2008, Barrack Obama won a landslide victory over Senator John McCain of Arizona.
In 1966 it was called the year of the Republican Comeback. The Republicans came roaring back eliminating House and Senate losses of two years earlier. Although Democrats held their majorities in both houses, President Johnson lost his liberal mandate that had allowed him to push through his Great Society legislation in 1965. Barrack Obama pushed through a huge comprehensive health care reform in 2009 and 2010. Now his mandate from the 2008 election is in danger.
Republicans gained in the Senate. Moderates Charles H. Percy of Illinois, Mark Hatfield of Oregon and Howard Baker, Jr., of Tennessee took seats formerly held by Democrats. Now Republicans Sharon Angle of Nevada, John Rasee of West Virginia, and Linda MacMahon of Connecticut have strong chances of taking away Senate seats held for years by Democrats. Additionally the Kennedy dynasty ended with a Republican replacing the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy in Massachusetts. One other interesting note was that in 1966 Senator Edward R. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first black elected to the US Senate in the twentieth century. It took until 2008 for the same thing to happen to the Presidency.
In 1966 Republicans took 52 House seats from Democrats that more than made up for their 38 seat loss two years earlier. Liberal Democrats in the House took a particularly hard beating. Twenty of the forty-seven Democrats who took House seats in 1964 were defeated. Four more of those Democrats who retired were replaced by Republicans.
Republicans made their biggest gains in governor races picking up eight new governorships for a total of 25. When Ronald Regan won in California, Raymond Shaffer in Pennsylvania, and with the re-election of James A. Rhodes in Ohio and Nelson Rockefeller in New York, Republicans had the governorships of five of the seven most populous states. How ironic that now Jerry Brown is battling a fierce competitor in Meg Whitman in California, Republican John Kasich is battling Governor Ted Strickland in a tense race in Ohio, and New York is having another election where the Republican candidate is trying to mount an upset. Also, George Romney's son Mitt, looks to be a favorite for the 2012 Republican nomination.
By the way, there was also war in 1966. Vietnam was raging. Today Iraq seems to be winding down but Afganistan is a whole other story. And Don't Ask Don't Tell had mostly to do with smoking pot.
At any rate, my only real point here is that Democrats and Republicans could really benefit from looking at the past. 1966 wasn't that long ago. Is history going to repeat itself in a few days? Did Democrats make the same mistakes they made after the Johnson landslide of 1964? Will Republicans take advantage of those mistakes as they did in 1966? Maybe in 1966 many of you were like me and to young to vote but now we all can. No matter how you vote, just vote. History depends on it.
Mike Payton
10-30-2010
