Interesting question.
1796-1800: John Adams (F)
1804-08: Shoot me
1812: Clinton (F)
1816: Rufus King (F)
1824-28: John Quincy Adams (D-R, Nat. R)
1832: No one. They're all horrible
1836: Van Buren I guess (D)
1840-44: Birney (Liberty)
1848: Van Buren (Free Soil)
1852: Hale (Free Soil)
1856: Fremont (R)
1860-64: Lincoln (R, Nat. Union)
1868-72: Grant (R)
1876: Cooper I guess (Greenback)
1880: Weaver (Greenback)
1884: Butler (Greenback)
1888-92: Harrison (R)
1896: Matchett I guess (Socialist Labor)
1900: Debs (Social Democratic)
1904: Roosevelt (R)
1908-12: Debs (Socialist)
1916: Hughes (R) (yes I know how weird that might look after picking Debs 3 times)
1920: Debs (Socialist)
1924: La Follette (Progressive)
1928-48: Thomas (Socialist)
1952-56: Eisenhower I guess (R)
1960: No one. Write-in for Stuart Symington I guess
1964: Johnson (D)
1968: Humphrey (D)
1972: McGovern (D)
1976: Carter (D)
1980: Carter (D) but I like Anderson a lot too
1984:Mondale (D)
1988: Dukakis (D)
1992: Clinton (D)
1996: Nader (Green)
2000: Didn't vote. Don't remember whether I liked anyone.
2004: Kerry (D). I was so f***n sick of Bush.
2008: Nader (I). I celebrated Obama's victory, but I didn't live in a swing state so I voted for the guy I liked the most.
2012: Stein (Green)
I'm actually really surprised so many of you prefer the Democratic-Republican party to the Federalists. Washington was a federalist. I honestly feel that if the Adams family was able to beat Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, the United States would have been a much more progressive country and slavery would have probably been abolished a lot sooner. Also I would never vote for someone who did something as despicable as what Jefferson did in his personal life. In 1836 I would have voted for Van Buren, not so much for his positions but because he would later join the Free Soil party. He would be the only Democrat I would vote until the CRA of 1964. In the elections before the Civil War I would have voted for any anti-slavery because anyone who didn't take a stance on the issue would f****ng disgust me. I would vote for the Liberty party, the Free Soil party and then the Republican party.
In 1876 I would abandon the Republicans who were by that time a very corrupt party. At the same time, the Democrats positions on states' rights, Jim Crow, voting rights for blacks were disgusting, so I would vote for the Greenback party until 1888. I would return to the Republican party in '88 because I like Harrison, but after '92 I would totally move to the left, with the exception of a few elections where I would vote for Republicans that I liked such as Roosevelt or Hughes (Hughes more for his personality than his positions on labor issues).
In the first half of the 20th century the Socialist had two wonderful candidates, Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas and I would have wholeheartedly supported them. I would have also supported La Follette in '24.
I would have voted for Eisenhower in '52 and '56 because he was a decent president (not a great one by any means, but better than most) and I would have gone with Nixon in '60 if I didn't know what a psycho he turned out to be. I wouldn't vote for JFK because both him and Lyndon Johnson spoke to segregated audiences in the South, which I think was a horrible thing to do. Stuart Symington who was running against them in the primary refused to speak to segregate audiences and I have a lot of respect for him for doing that, even if it cost him the presidency.
I would finally vote for the Democrats in '64 and I would keep voting for them in every election until 1996. There really were no decent, progressive third party candidates during those years (with the exception of Anderson) and the Democrats had some really decent human beings such as Carter or Dukakis running for president. I would probably go with Nader in '96 because I honestly agree with him more than I agree with the Democrats, especially the New Democrats that were running the party back then.
I didn't vote in 2000 because I didn't care about politics back then, and I voted for Kerry in '04 because I had no idea how the electoral college worked and I thought my vote mattered
I'm glad Obama is the president and I would have voted for him if I was in a swing state, but I agree with Nader or Stein more and I wanted to send a message against the 2-party system, which I feel is terrible. But I think having a black family in the White House is wonderful and it gives a lot of black kids in this country hope. It also makes many whites understand that we have nothing to fear, and it's better if we live in peace with our neighbors (tea partiers, gun nuts and other crazies didn't get the memo and became even more paranoid, but that's a whole different story).
But going from a president who used a black girl as his sex toy simply because he could, to having a black family in the White House shows that perhaps things are changing for the better.
