The historical curve

A career runs from 1990 to 2025, and the world around the player changes as the decades pass. The historical curve governs how the parties, the nation's figures, and each state's figures follow real history while the player does not hold the office that would otherwise set them, and how those figures return to the historical trend after the player leaves office.

Wings by period

Every generated politician belongs to a wing of their party. A Democrat is progressive, liberal, a Blue Dog moderate, or a democratic socialist; a Republican is populist, Christian right, neoconservative, or libertarian. The mix of wings within each party changes over time. Among Democrats, the moderate Blue Dog wing was much larger in 1990 than it became by the 2010s, the progressive wing grew steadily over the same period, and democratic socialists only begin to appear from the late 2000s. Among Republicans, the neoconservative wing shrank considerably over the same decades while the populist wing grew to become the party's largest.

Well-known real politicians keep a fixed wing, or a wing that changes at a known point in their career, rather than being drawn from the general mix. Dianne Feinstein, for example, is always liberal, Barbara Boxer is always progressive, and Mitch McConnell is always neoconservative. Some real figures are written as changing wing partway through their career: Lindsey Graham moves from neoconservative to populist, and Kirsten Gillibrand moves from Blue Dog to liberal.

The nation's and each state's figures

The nation's economy and social figures, and each state's own figures, follow real history at a set of points corresponding to the presidency game's own start years, between 1990 and 2025. Between one point and the next, every figure moves gradually rather than jumping. Before 1990 there is no curve to follow, and after 2025 the figures stay flat. California, New York and Florida have their own figures written out in full; every other state's figures are drawn from the same historical record. A governor or President taking office inherits whatever the curve says at that exact moment, including anything a previous term in that career left behind.

While the player holds office

While the player holds an office, its figures stop following history and move only as a result of the player's own choices: a governor's state figures change only through the governor's own policies, and a President's national figures come from the presidency game's own simulation. A two-term governor who takes no action affecting the state's population, for example, sees that figure stay exactly where it started for the whole eight years.

The drift back

When the player leaves an office, the difference between the desk's own figures and what the historical curve says at that moment is remembered, and it fades gradually over the following years rather than vanishing at once or lingering forever. This means a governor who leaves office having pushed a state's numbers well above or below the historical trend leaves behind an economy that keeps some of that effect for a while, before it eventually settles back onto the same trend every other state follows. A governor who goes on to win the presidency has this same drift applied to the state before the presidential desk is set up.