If Democratic Party primary candidate Bernie Sanders wants to be as transformative a president as Franklin Roosevelt was, that is not going to happen. Eighty years ago, the Democrats owned Congress.
From 1933 up to 1939, Roosevelt’s party held an average of 220 more seats in the House than the GOP did. Republican membership dropped from 117 in 1933 to 88 by 1937 out of a total of 435. The numbers in the Senate were almost as lopsided, with the Democrats enjoying a 70 percent majority. Is it any wonder that the New Deal legislation got passed?
Today, the Republicans control Congress and especially so in the House of Representatives. Whatever sweeping legislation Sanders now proposes is nothing more than wishful thinking, given the weaker stature of the Democratic Party relative to the past. Nor will his presence significantly alter the numbers to his advantage.