My History Can Beat Up Your Politics

4 years ago we said this... Call 2022 the Mick Jagger midterm - neither party got fully what they wanted. Both parties experienced win and losses. It is, so far, largely a "stave midterm" where the President's party lost less seats than expected - we've discussed a few of these on this podcast, and thus for the party expected to have lost seats a kind of win. Yet in this case as opposed to other 'stave' midterms, the President's Party looks like they will lose the house. So when is a win a win and a loss a loss? Is this like the 1970, 1990 or 1994 or 1974 elections? We discuss all this and talk about a midterm in the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A normal midterm with its usual issues between the parties becomes a test for a new President when a labor strike unexpectedly reaches his desk. The opposition party gains, but so does his. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nixon's first presidential midterm election (the election in which the House and Senate would be up for election) would turn out to be his last, but no one knew it at the time. Nixon tried something Presidents hadn't tried and took off in Air Force One to boost GOP candidates and attack hippie "thugs" across the country. He hoped to reverse the midterm trend. He did not, and he blamed bad audio and unhelpful political science. He may have done better than he thought. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson and William McKinley's midterm elections are not remembered. But each one changed history in its own way. One confined a President, the other changed a party. And the third may have cemented America's place in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the run up to the Civil War, former first lady Julia Tyler participated in a political debate. Moderns will appreciate her participation in politics as an empowered well written woman. Her cause less so. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices