However, they ignore powerful counterevidence by ending this part of their analysis with 1988 and focusing solely on the votes for one office. N the hundred years from 1864 to 1964 there were only three elections in which the presidential candidate of a minor party received more than five percent of the vote. Since then this threshold has been exceeded by George Wallace, John Anderson, and Ross Perot. 19 percent in 1992 and eight percent in 1996. Another historically unprecedented facet of recent American elections is the split decisions they have regularly yielded.
Historians typically identify political eras according to the dominant party of the times.
The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln was the dominant party in national elections over the three decades after the Civil War. Then William McKinley's brand of pro-business Republicanism was ascendant for nearly forty years. A Democratic era followed in which New Deal policies were in favor. But since the election of 1968 neither party has really been in control, because Presidents have typically been faced with opposition majorities in Congress. If batting averages had fallen so dramatically in baseball, there would be an uproar demanding something to restore the historical balance between hitters and pitchers.