Yep, I'm old enough to remember the last 36 years myself, sonny. Kinda interesting correlation between the good times and keeping the Republicans in Congress safely on the leash. 'Course, that all changed along about 2001, when Republicans took over all three branches of government. Now we're all jittery about the economy and generally worried about the future. Funny how them there correlations work, dontcha think?

Where'd ya get those statistics? I'd like to take 'em back a bit further, to, oh, I dunno, say 1928 or so. Wonder what the correlation between good times and Congressional margins might look like?

(OK, can't maintain the cracker barrel accent beyond two paragraphs. But I do want to point out that statistics like that don't exist in a vacuum. Sure it galls you Republicans to think you were sidelined all that time, but maybe it was for the best. America once was a prosperous and powerful nation, for a long period of about 70 years, a period that just happens to coincide with what you call a "sharp turn to the left" since the New Deal. Things haven't looked so good since you managed to jerk the country back to the Right since the late '90s.

Correlations, ya gotta love 'em.)