AMPU: Historical Party Switch Dates

[vcczar]

Hey guys! After a tedious several hours, I've finished putting in historic party switching dates for politicians. The dates are based on presidential term years, so a 1994 switch is marked 1996, for instance. 

What will this mean? 

This means three things: 

1. Now that start dates will be at presidential term years, the politicians will be with their historical party at each start date, if they are a politician that has switched. 
2. There could be an option to allow historic party switching. This would deactivate party switching attempts and someone like Elizabeth Warren will automatically switch to Democrats in 1996. 
3. Players could also keep player-based party switching, which will mean they have to convert politicians. There will also be events that allow some party switching chances. 

Here's something to ponder. Should a flippable politician be considered in a drafting strategy? Is it better to draft a C+ politician that will stay loyal or is it better to draft a B- politician that is flippable? Someone you might lose! 

Which years saw the most party flipping? Here's a chronological guide of the biggest flip date years?:

• 1796 - Hamilton upsets some Federalists
• 1824 - Monroe's lack of party leadership sees his party break in half. Surprisingly, many conservative Federalists join the Democrats, although most of the flipping will be to the "Red Party"
• 1856 - Anti-slavery Dems join the new Republican Party; Conservative Whigs join the Democrats. 
• 1872 - Gilded Age, corruption, Reconstruction sees a lot of party switching to the Democrats. 
• 1896 - Bimetalism comes apart. Those favoring Gold go to the Republicans and those favoring currency the favors poorer Americans favor Democrats. 
• 1932 - Great Depression sees converts for Dems. 
• 1972 - A combination of LBJ's Great Society and Nixon's Silent Majority strategy sees some GOP converts. 
• 1996 - Newt Gingrich's Contract with America sees the last of the Southern Dem holdouts (the majority of them, actually) convert to the GOP. 

There's party flipping in almost every year. In the 21st century, we see some for 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. I'd say the net/gain is about even for both parties in the 21st century. 

How many AMPU politicians are flippable? I'd say about 8% or 10%. I'd say less than 1% flip parties multiple times, such as Trump. 

I'll next put in historical relocation dates, but I won't start that until tomorrow. 

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[vcczar]

2 minutes ago, Patine said:

@vcczar Interesting question on this. I'm sure there are other turning point, "what-if," questions, but this most comes to mind. If Henry Clay had been nominated and won in 1848, or accepted Taylor's offer as VP, Webster's faction had gained control of the Whig Party leadership after Clay's death, and the Whigs had not lost so disasterously in 1852 (if lost at all), or some similar situation, would the Whig extinction and rise of the GOP in 1856 still happen in your game?

Possibly so. Neither Clay nor Taylor were really anti-slavery. GOP might have started sooner.