Tuesday’s midterm elections will settle control of Congress for two years. They will also quietly start the next campaign. By Wednesday morning, would-be presidential candidates will be booking trips to early-primary states, and newly elected House members will be back on call time, raising money for 2028.
America has less a governing problem than a reelection problem. Presidents spend half of their first term running for the second. Senators, elected for six years, lose roughly two of them to campaigning. House members, elected for two years, never stop. The result is a government built to win elections rather than solve problems, and the bills come due where everyone can see them: aging infrastructure, Social Security fixes pushed off for another cycle, immigration compromises that never make it to the runway. Good character can’t fix a calendar that leaves too little time to govern.
