These 2 Charts Show The Decline Of Democrats In Congress

The battle for control over Congress is one that Democrats have historically won, but that's all changing.

We tallied the count of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate since the 79th Congress (there have been 36 Congresses since then) and Democrats are the clear champions, having held a majority 25 times in the Senate and 26 times in the House.

This left the Republicans with a majority only 11 and 10 times in the Senate and House.

More importantly, Democrats have held a simultaneous majority in both houses 22 times since the 79th Congress. This is incredibly powerful, as legislation has to pass the Senate and House in order to become law. Republicans, in contrast, have only held a majority in both houses seven times.

But Republican presence in Congress has overtaken that of the Democrats since President Clinton entered office in 1993.

Since then, Republicans and Democrats have shared power in the Senate equally, with six majorities each. In the House, however, Republicans have won the majority nine times, compared to the Democrats' three. What's more, six of the total seven instances in which Congress has been entirely controlled by the GOP have occurred since 1995.

Despite a surge in GOP Congressional representation, Americans have shown little tolerance for either party of late, as we've seen under both President Bush and Obama.

Republican dominance was mostly confined to the 104th and 109th Congresses (the third year of Clinton's term through the sixth year of Bush's), but by the end of President Bush's term, Americans were fed up with the status quo and had voted a Democratically-controlled Congress back into power.

Now, in the last two years of President Obama's term, Americans are itching for a change again. This November, they voted to put Congress back in the hands of the GOP.

If one thing can be learned from recent trends, it's not that Democrats or Republicans have the upper-hand in Congress, but that the incumbent party should be worried; Congress is shifting power much more frequently than it has in the past.

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