Judging which party had power by outcomes is much more effective than only consider political seats. Going back at least to the beginning of Obama the major changes pushed through have heavily favored Democratic policies rather than Republican.
Gay marriage, reversing don't ask don't tell, and the ACA are all policies that the Republicans were very opposed to. The overturning of Roe v Wade is the only major Republican win I can think of (maybe I missed some), though that is a decades old fight and one that in my opinion Democrats setup for failure by never pushing it passed a single supreme court ruling.
Political power follows culture, and for the recent past the majority public opinion has generally supported Democratic policies over Republican ones. That's changed.
The last time the parties flipped was in the 70s and 80s. I was only alive for the tail end of that and paying no attention to politics, but my understanding is that the pattern was generally the same. At that time they flipped names as well, many democrats of the era moved over to the republican party. Maybe we'll see that again in the near future, but for now it seems like both parties are happier to keep the same brands while switch many view points (big business vs workers, state rights issues, limits on the executive branch, etc)
Gay marriage, reversing don't ask don't tell, and the ACA are all policies that the Republicans were very opposed to. The overturning of Roe v Wade is the only major Republican win I can think of (maybe I missed some), though that is a decades old fight and one that in my opinion Democrats setup for failure by never pushing it passed a single supreme court ruling.
Political power follows culture, and for the recent past the majority public opinion has generally supported Democratic policies over Republican ones. That's changed.
The last time the parties flipped was in the 70s and 80s. I was only alive for the tail end of that and paying no attention to politics, but my understanding is that the pattern was generally the same. At that time they flipped names as well, many democrats of the era moved over to the republican party. Maybe we'll see that again in the near future, but for now it seems like both parties are happier to keep the same brands while switch many view points (big business vs workers, state rights issues, limits on the executive branch, etc)