Welcome to constitutionally speaking a podcast about the United States Constitution,

early American history and political philosophy.

My name is Jay Koss, and with me is my co-host and co-conspirator Luke Thompson.

And this week is the final installation in our little series about the history of Congress,

the historical evolution of Congress.

This is part of a larger series we're doing on Congress.

I thought we'd open up by talking about the constitutional Congress and how Congress has evolved.

And in our last episode, we got as far as Congress in the 1980s and up to the 1994 Republican

revolution, which really was in many respects a revolution. And, you know, there have been a lot of

major electoral shockwaves that have run through

the country on midterms. Those are always sort of fun. You know, you see a big change in the

political dynamics happening in Congress and midterms. You know, we had one in 2018. When the

Democrats took control, we had one in 2010 with the

Republicans, 2006 with the Democrats. But, you know, in retrospect, I think the 1994 Republican

takeover of Congress ends up standing out for a number of reasons. And I think it heralds

several themes that are going to continue on for the next couple of generations, frankly, because

that's what we're talking about now. It's been more than a quarter century. I mean, I think probably

we have more than a few listeners, Luke, who were not even alive

when the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994.

The historical background here is important to bear in mind, which is that the Republicans in the House of Representatives,

the last time the party had won a majority was all the way back in 1952 when they rode Eisenhower's coattails.

Back in 1952 is a very, very different party. It was still basically the same party that it had been ever since the Civil War.

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