Perhaps never in living memory, not even as 1998 ended with a presidential impeachment, has a new Congress readied itself to be sworn in with lower apparent odds for accomplishing anything. Yet the need for action is pronounced.

The House is newly controlled by a party that doesn’t merely disagree with but actively loathes the president, who comes from the other party. The Senate is controlled by a president’s own party that nonetheless struggles just to tolerate him. The congressional parties, meanwhile, enjoy no lingering tradition of bipartisanship, and few “moderates” of either party are left to bridge the gap.