BATTLING FOR AMERICA'S SOUL

 

[Published in the Sunday Guardian of India]

President Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) Movement are moving at lightning speed on a broad front to restore governmental integrity and restore American culture.

His revolutionary change agents are now confirmed and taking the helms in their respective agencies.  Along with legions of capable operatives, they are reversing decades of Leftist policies and eliminating large numbers of those loyal to the endless expansion of government.

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are exposing billions of waste, fraud, and abuse.  Their wide-ranging audits of Executive Branch operations are well on their way to exceeding the $2 trillion budget reduction goal.

The battle over national governance is only a small part of the more fundamental battle over America’s core values and civic culture.

America is unique.  It is a country based upon ideas - not geography, language, or tribe.  Our historic sites and markers ground us in who we are, and why we are. 

America’s civic culture thrives because it has maintained a common frame of reference supporting freedom of expression, representative government, limited government, and government dispersed among states and locales – the fundamentals of a federal system and republican governance.

The resiliency and longevity of America’s civic culture is based upon its citizens learning and understanding how their government works and their role in supporting and participating in it.

America’s Constitution is about forming “a more perfect union”.  This means America is always a work in progress.  The Constitution itself is the greatest “rules of engagement” for collective action that has ever been written.  Looking beyond ourselves reaffirms our nation and our individual and collective roles in it.

A critical element is our collective memory and frames of reference.  Statues and historic sites exist to commemorate and remember, not to celebrate. Knowing and discussing our origin is fundamental to a civic culture where shared values hold us together.  Civil dialogue with those we disagree is the structure that allows our institutions, our communities, and ourselves to exist. 

America’s unique civic culture and collective identity is the antithesis to tyranny.  President Ronald Reagan referred to America’s example of freedom and representative government as “the shining light on the hill” that inspired freedom loving people worldwide.

Those promoting Communism, Fascism, and other forms of oppression have continually assailed America to neutralize challenges to their power. Internally, those wanting unbridled political power have made common cause with outside forces in their attempt to undermine America.

In 1927, Stuart Chase, one of the founding members of President Franklin Roosevelt’s (FDR) “Brain Trust”, met with Stalin and Trotsky to gain inspiration for taking over America. In his 1932 “New Deal” book Chase mused, “Why should the Russians have all the fun of remaking the world?” 

Guided by Chase’s vision, the Left set about to methodically capture and control America’s cultural levers.  Hollywood fell first. Most news media fell by the late 1960s. Print media was corrupted from the start. Pro-America outlets, like Time Magazine, succumbed as their conservative founders retired or died. Academia was conquered during the 1960s in the wake of the “free speech movement” and then the anti-Vietnam War protests.

During the 1980s, the Left targeted America’s 13,425 school districts. Leftist teachers replaced moderate pro-American teachers as they retired.  These Leftist teachers promoted revisionist history supported by new textbooks like Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”, which became the standard high school textbook for a generation.

In some schools, world history courses narrowed to cover only events that occurred after 1200 AD. Large swarths of historical events and figures were eliminated.  The Texas State Board of Education voted to remove 450 historical figures. This included significant individuals like John Hancock. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 18 percent of High School graduates are proficient in American history.  

A parallel project was shrinking civics education to the point where only 23 percent of eighth-graders perform at or above the proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics exam, and only 26 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government. 

The election of Barack Obama in 2008 ushered in an era of divisiveness. Obama campaigned as a proponent and symbol of racial harmony. Once elected, Obama and his Administration launched a wide range of actions to racialize America.  By the end of his eight years, racial and sexual demographics became the lens through which private and public actions were viewed. 

The era of “wokism” replaced meritocracy.  Martin Luther King’s famous quote,” one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” was completely turned upside down.  Divisiveness and “tribalism” ate away at America’s common framework and values.

An intensified phase of undermining America’s civic culture began after a 2011 Harvard Study revealed that participating in historical/patriotic celebrations promoted conservative voting patterns. The Left began to methodically demonize America’s founding narrative, encompassing events and people.

Denigrating the American Flag, removing the National Anthem, and ending 4^th of July were the Left’s trinity for destroying America’s civic culture.

Statues were removed.  Athletes “took a knee” to denigrate America’s National Anthem, a “Black National Anthem” was sung as the preferred “more inclusive” alternative.

The Left’s goal was to fundamentally shift the inspiring narrative of America’s founding in 1776 to the darker, anti-American, narrative of the 1619 movement.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the intellectual force behind the 1619 movement, asserted the arrival of the first slaves at Jamestown was the true founding of America.  This was launched in 2019 as a counter to celebrating the 400^th Anniversary of the first democratically elected assembly in America.  Hannah-Jones barnstormed cable news asserting, “Independence Day does not mean the same thing to everybody.  We are forcing white people to confront what this holiday has meant to black people”.

On one show, Hannah-Jones’ assertion was supported by Leftist historian Jon Meacham, who reported that the July 4^th was “only about a document not about shaping a nation”.  Meacham asserted, “For generations we have looked at 1776 as our founding moment, our “nativity”, when it was actually 1619…For too long we have taught this one narrative that glorifies white supremacy, glorifies colonization.”

The Left elevated an obscure moment in America’s Civil War, “Juneteenth”, as the “more inclusive” alternative to celebrating the “white slave document” of the Declaration of Independence.

Juneteenth is based on the false narrative that slavery in America ended on June 19, 1865.  That was the day a Union General marched into Galveston, Texas and announced the Civil War was over and the slaves being held in that region were free. It took ratifying the 13^th Amendment on December 6, 1865, to officially free all of America’s slaves nationwide.  

The Left began an incessant drumbeat that America was “built by enslaved people on stolen land”. The noble narrative of a nation of immigrants thriving in freedom, commerce, and limited government, was replaced by shame.

The Left’s goal was to expand government to “right wrongs” and “make amends”. Key elements were reparations; Critical Race Theory (CRT); Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); and Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”).

The Left’s echo chamber of controlling media, academia, entertainment, and government reached its zenith with the George Floyd riots of 2020.  Demonizing Trump and his supporters as racists, fascists, and Nazis became one of the vehicles for sweeping Joe Biden into power.  Leftist control of social media silenced dissent.  They were on the brink of totally remaking America in their image.

Then the world changed.

The Leftist agenda, to flood America with illegal immigrants, create chaos through weakening the police, and steer the justice system from going after criminals to going after Trump and his supporters ignited a massive backlash.

It became increasingly clear to a growing number of Americans, that they were being lied to by every entity they trusted. One by one, the Left’s carefully constructed reality fell apart.  Crime spiraled out of control in cities. Inflation soared. America’s weakened foreign and military policy emboldened tyrants and Americans died.

On April 14, 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter. Suddenly, one of the most important components of the Left’s fraudulent reality became the chief forum for exposing their lies.

President Biden’s steady mental decline became harder to hide. Trust in those who lied in order to gain, expand, and retain their power vanished. 

The 2024 election shocked the system back to reality.  The MAGA revolution and the DOGE audits gave new hope that America could be saved.

The struggle to save America is just beginning.

“We’re in the middle of a cultural revolution in America, and one of the biggest battlegrounds is the schools,” explained Moms For Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.

There are 98,577 public schools in 13,425 school districts.  Each district is run by elected school boards where ultra-Leftist politicians dominate.  The 3,827,100 public school teachers are mostly liberal to Leftist. 94 percent of teacher union campaign funds go to Democrats.

In West Virginia, America’s most conservative Republican state, public school leaders promoted Che Guevara as their 2022 role model for Hispanic Heritage Month.

President Trump joined the battle by issuing an Executive Order on January 29, 2025, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling”:

“In recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.  Such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination.  In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics…These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity.

Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation’s children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority…Similarly, demanding acquiescence to “White Privilege” or “unconscious bias,” actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity.”

Trump’s Executive Order directs federal agencies to end funding for any activities deemed undermining America’s civic culture. It is a clear signal that the decades long battle for the soul of America is a priority. 

While Trump is waging an office-by-office struggle to gain control of the Federal Government, parents and local activists are fighting to regain America-affirming education school-by-school, and classroom-by-classroom. 

Generations of young people are adults with at best ignorance about America, or at worst, a Leftist set of assumptions about their country.

What took the Left decades to destroy, may take years to reverse. Time is short.

All the world’s freedom loving people are watching.

 

 

LEADING IN THE NEW CONGRESS

 

[Published on Newmax]

The Republican Congress has a small window of opportunity to redefine the political landscape.

Will Republicans repeat history or make history?

Remember 2011?  Republicans won an historic number of seats in 2010 only to become disappointingly ineffective.  A thundering herd of elephants birthed mice.

Republicans will need to overcome several challenges. 

First, most media will declare the “end of days” and breathlessly report the coming “Republican apocalypse” in detail.  They will demonize every incoming Republican with cherry-picked “facts” and an endless array of fiction. 

Second, Republicans will not be unified.  They rarely are.  Conservatives should remember that just because Members of Congress are “R”s they are not necessarily “ours”.  There are moderate and liberal Republicans, along with swamp dwellers, timid souls, and special interest conflicted.

Republicans, even with a slim majority, can make a difference if they achieve four major goals: Expose; End; Equip; Endure.

EXPOSE

Congress has a fundamental duty to conduct oversight and hold those in power accountable. 

This begins with Congress itself.  Republican leaders must immediately demand that January 6, 2021, videos from all 1,800 Capitol Hill cameras are preserved.  Any cameras “not working on that day”, and “lost" or “damaged” videos, must be fully explained and documented.

On January 6, 2023, Congress embraces transparency by releasing all January 6 videos from all cameras unedited or redacted.  Let Americans see for themselves what happened.

To follow-up, Congress then identifies law enforcement shown on Capitol security and news videos helping protesters by unlocking and opening doors, removing security barriers, waving them to the Capitol, or standing-by passively.  Each law enforcement officer should be individually brought behind closed doors and asked, under oath, “who told you to do that?” 

Those who “were following orders’ will be asked, “whose orders?”  Their superiors are brought forward and asked the same questions.  Congressional Q&A continues until top law enforcement officials either assert they initiated rules of engagement themselves or identify orders from specifically named elected officials.  These communications would then be released to the public.

There are countless Biden abominations that deserve investigation.  Republicans must heed the lessons from their ineffectual pursuit of Obama scandals.  Subpoenas will be ignored, documents will be withheld, slow walked, or become “missing”, witnesses will refuse to testify, lie, or obfuscate.

The gold standard remains the 1973 Watergate Committee.  They began with the lowest level people and worked their way up to the top.  Questions were asked and Members waited for answers instead of launching into finger waving monologues.  Public hearings are theatrical events. Republicans need to manage the plot, characters, and answers beforehand and build a narrative.  The truth is out there but is nearly impossible to uncover in a timely enough manner to matter.

Nonpartisan oversight should also occur, using hundreds of reports published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the 72 Department and Agency Inspectors General.  Americans need to repeatedly hear about the mindboggling expanse of waste, fraud, and abuse that is endemic in the Federal Government.  This validates the next Republican President’s reform agenda.

END

Republicans will end new Biden initiatives and reduce his ability for mischief. They can defund programs, positions, and people.  They can turn campaign promises into reality by introducing legislation addressing voter priorities.

Justification through hearings and legislation will reveal and debunk the underlying dogma that is driving the Biden agendas for climate change and wokism.  Deindustrializing America is foundational to Biden’s assault on energy independence.  Showcasing silenced experts on these matters is vital.

Biden will veto everything Republicans do, and they will not have the votes to override. Republicans can counter by thinking well ahead of these predictable moves. Biden vetoes will become opportunities to contrast Republican voter-endorsed solutions with how Biden’s policies destroy America. This builds the case for change in 2024.

EQUIP

Republicans used the last two years of President Jimmy Carter to pave the way for the Reagan Revolution.  The next two years can equip the next Republican President with ideas and actions that will define the political landscape for 2024 and beyond. Through hearings, legislation, and floor speeches, they can build a mandate for the next Republican President to “hit the ground running”.   This change agenda will generate Leftist attacks, providing insights for Republican counter measures when they are reintroduced in 2025. 

ENDURE

The Washington, DC swamp is far deeper and extensive than anyone ever realized.  Republicans who cannot be bought-off or scared-off will be relentlessly savaged.  Democrats are known for locking arms and never breaking ranks.  Republicans shoot their wounded, even ones with minor injuries.  Time to think strategically and prepare for future battles 

To save America we must think past one election, one hearing, or one piece of legislation. 

It took years for the Left to gain the upper hand.  

It will take years to end their reign.

Scot Faulkner served as Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives and helped lead Speaker Newt Gingrich's Congressional Transition in 1994. He was Director of Personnel for the 1980 Reagan Campaign and served on the Presidential Transition team.  He currently advises corporations on implementing strategic change.

Apocalypse Now: July 13, 2020

[Guest Contributor - Donald G. Mutersbaugh Sr.]

I can’t help but to think about the Democrat Convention this summer. I might be wrong but I believe that there has been another paradigm shift in the electorate. I predicted one before, and I’m predicting another one now: the candidate of choice is going to be based on emotions, feelings and about who can beat Trump – but not qualifications.

I predicted in an earlier writing that neither Biden nor Sanders would get the nomination. This was based on Biden’s performance and Sanders – always the bridesmaid with his socialist programs. Further, I predicted that two women may head the ticket. While this may still come to pass (I believe that Elizabeth Warren will lose consideration because of her untruthfulness), I’m going to propose a different scenario for consideration: a brokered convention. While this hasn’t happened in either party since 1952 and despite all of the rewrite of the rules, the Democrat party may have no choice but to wrest its way through one this summer. The hatred of Trump is overwhelming.

The old monkey wrench seems to be the Democrat establishment; despite the popularity of Bernie, they do not feel his progressive socialism will win the hearts and minds of the people – therefore, he’s got to go. And poor old Joe, he’s caught up in a maelstrom of family problems and political gaffes. Plus: “Here’s something ‘everybody knows' that is almost certainly true. The two most widely respected figures in the Democratic Party — Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi — are worried that a Sanders nomination could be disastrous for the party in the fall, increasing the likelihood that Trump is reelected or that enough marginal House Democrats lose their seats to turn congressional control back to the GOP. Of course, the reason an outsider like Trump took over the Republican Party is the same reason a socialist like Sanders might take over the Democratic Party: Party leaders simply do not wield the same levers of power in an era of online ideological movements. But that doesn’t mean they have no leverage.” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/25/why-bernie-sanders-might-not-lock-democratic-nomination-117339

“Imagine that Sanders comes into the convention with a weak plurality, far short of 1,991 delegates. When he asserts that the candidate with the most delegates should be awarded the delegation, and rails against the establishment, he is confronted with his comments from 2016 like this one.

“The responsibility that superdelegates have is to decide what is best for this country and what is best for the Democratic Party,” Sanders said. “And if those superdelegates conclude that Bernie Sanders is the best candidate, the strongest candidate to defeat Trump and anybody else, yes, I would very much welcome their support.”

“His brand is suddenly tarnished – he looks like every other self-serving politician.” (Ibid) Oops! So, everybody has to consider what other likely strategies could come from this.

Remember: this is an emotional election and not a qualification election. So, qualifications aside what would be the most popular ticket (it is evident that one candidate alone is not going to shift this).

In a previous article that I wrote, I predicted that Michelle Obama would run for the presidency in 2024 – and that the interim time period would be spent grooming her for that event. What if the establishment proposed a ticket that had her as the vice president and the next most eligible candidate at this time for president? Bloomberg and Obama? Or how about Buttigieg and Obama? 

Even more outrageous – despite her record – could be Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama be the most reasonable compromise at this time? I believe that any ticket like this basically decided by the superdelegates could possibly cause Trump a problem especially if it were presented with an outstanding cabinet of people – perhaps, those no-Trumpers that have recently received the boot from the Trump administration.

This action by the establishment would obviously all but destroy the Democrat party. It would be a political calculation of how many of Bernie’s people would leave the party and how many would rejoin the party because of the excitement generated with this ticket. I have not seen any polls that have attempted to project these numbers – either coming or going. But over the long run, if the strategy were successful, I think the Democrat party would heal very quickly. I’m sure as part of this deal, all horse-trading aside, Bernie would be taken care of with some type of a political plum and indebtedness from the party leaders for his part in taking down Trump – however indirectly this may have occurred.

Now to return to the part about this being an emotional election. The Democrat party is going to have a hard time dislodging an incumbent president whose accomplishments and current popularity are so high. 

“Americans are more positive about the state of the nation than they have been in over a decade, and Trump and the GOP appear to be benefiting. Still, in this era of extreme party polarization, that puts his approval rating at 49%, as Republicans' already high ratings have risen further while Democrats' negative opinions of him aren't budging. Independents' ratings of Trump have improved, but they are still more likely to disapprove than approve of the job he is doing.

“The significance of the trend is clear. An approval rating near 50% greatly increases Trump's chances of being re-elected, a prospect that seemed unlikely with his approval stuck near 40% for most of his term.” https://news.gallup.com/poll/286280/trump-job-approval-steady.aspx 

There was one other poll taken recently that maybe speaks volumes to Trump’s reelection prospects: “New High of 90% of Americans Satisfied With Personal Life” https://news.gallup.com/poll/284285/new-high-americans-satisfied-personal-life.aspx When you examine the individual cohorts of this poll, the Democrat party faces a daunting task indeed! 

This will be an interesting election to see which matters most to the American people: emotions or results!

Donald G. Mutersbaugh, Sr. earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland and his Master of Business Administration degree from Mary Washington College. He is the former Associate Administrator of Information Resources for the U.S House of Representatives under Speaker Newt Gingrich.

REPUBLICAN DEATH WISH - ELECTION 2018

Also published on Newsmax.

Campaign losses are more “suicides” than “homicides”.

The Republicans were poised to beat the odds during the 2018 “Mid-term” election, then everything went wrong. Trump’s last minute targeting of key Senate races recovered some, but not all, of the opportunities for Republican gains. The House was another matter.

History was on the Republicans’ side - Trump’s 2016 victory did not extend to House or Senate races. Democrats gained two Senate seats and six House seats. The absence of “coat tails” meant there was a dearth of “at risk” Congressional Republicans. At the same time, ten Democrat Senate incumbents, who had benefited from Obama’s 2012 trouncing of Romney, were potentially easy targets in states where Trump won handily.

Enter the Lemming Factor. 

It did not take long for media pundits and liberal pollsters to declare that Trump’s behavior and policies would generate a “Blue Wave” overwhelming Republicans in 2018. The prevailing wisdom was that dozens of Republican incumbents in Districts won by Hillary Clinton were going to be decimated. Easily spooked Republicans bought into this analysis. They overlooked the fact that the Republicans who won in 2016 Hillary Districts were the strongest, not the weakest going into 2018. 

Facts did not matter. On November 9, 2017, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee and an incumbent who consistently won re-election by over 60%, announced his retirement. Other Republican incumbents soon opted to leave. By early 2018, 26 safe Republicans, who had weathered Hillary’s best effort, had retired, creating potential for Democrat gains. Surprisingly, more than enough for Democrats to retake the House.

Republicans actually began losing the House in February 2017. Speaker Ryan and his leadership team determined their best course of action was to distance themselves from their new Republican President. 

Ryan missed the opportunity to coordinate with the Republican run Executive Branch to open and re-open investigations against Obama, Clinton, and all their minions. This could have included delivering the Comey Report on Hillary Clinton’s email abuses to a Grand Jury and inevitable indictments. Every witness who refused to testify under Obama could be forced to testify. Every document refused under Obama could be released. 

Aggressively exposing Obama/Clinton misdeeds 24/7 would have build the case for Republican government and crippled Democrat candidate recruitment and fundraising for 2018.

Ryan and his committee Chairs blew it, and paid the price. The Democrats caught their breath and rebounded from 2016. Unfortunately, starting in January 2018, House Democrats will show Republicans how total war is waged - 85 subpoenas are already being prepared. 

Trump also contributed to Congressional losses. He laid the ground work for defeat in March 2016 when his inner circle chose to ignore advice and offers for help from Reagan alumni. Trump and his team embraced Washington functionaries from Bush, Romney, and Never Trumper networks to plan and run his Presidential Transition. 

In 1981, the Reagan Transition and early White House relentlessly tracked down and removed every Carter operative and all Democrats who had careered into the bureaucracy. Every possible threat to Reagan’s revolution was marched out the door, stripped of their security clearances. By March 1981, Reagan had a clear path to greatness.

Thanks for bad, possibly malicious, advice Trump left large swaths of Obama/Clinton operatives in place, along with their security clearances and access. In the name of austerity, Trump’s slow, and in many cases nonexistent, insertion of loyalists into key Executive Branch positions left him open to being blindsided, undermined, and outmaneuvered. Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, filled White House and Agency slots with “RINOgators” from among his Republican National Committee associates. This meant countless opportunities were lost to make Trump’s revolution a lasting operational reality beyond Executive Orders.

Trump’s final error was not declassifying, unredacting, and releasing all documents relating to the bogus Russian collusion probe. Starting months before the election, Nunes and a small band of Congressional Trump loyalists, along with conservative pundits, pleaded for Trump to release these documents. Exposing “sources and methods” was not an issue. The “Deep State” wanted to avoid embarrassment and convinced Trump to do the wrong thing. 

The documents, as characterized by Nunes and others who had actually read them, would have destroyed the Democrats, the Mueller Probe, and the liberal media. A pre-election release would have eviscerated the opposition and possibly saved the House.

The one hope America has is that House Democrats will excel at “jumping the shark” and overreach well beyond the Senate Democrats’ fraudulent attacks on Justice Kavanaugh.

Democrats’ desire for investigation not legislation will not bring down Trump. Pursuing their revenge fantasies will only prove they are not ready to rationally govern. 

November 3, 2020 will be another day of reckoning.

MID TERMS MATTER

“CONSTITUTING AMERICA” SERIES ON CONGRESSIONAL HISTORY

The definition of a Midterm Election is that it is held mid-way through the term of the President. While not on the ballot, the President’s electoral mandate and actions to fulfill that mandate, are validated or challenged by voters as they elect members of the Legislative Branch.

Midterms were created as the solution to a fundamental issue in the founding of America:

What is the balance between responsive and responsible government?

The authors and advocates of the U.S. Constitution wrestled with this balance.

One the one hand, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, writing as “PUBLIUS”, asserted in their essays advocating for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, that frequent elections guaranteed Congress’ elected Members responding to the will of the people.

Federalist No. 52:

“First. As it is essential to liberty that the government in general should have a common interest with the people, so it is particularly essential that the branch of it under consideration should have an immediate dependence on, and an intimate sympathy with, the people. Frequent elections are unquestionably the only policy by which this dependence and sympathy can be effectually secured…. It is a received and well-founded maxim, that where no other circumstances affect the case, the greater the power is, the shorter ought to be its duration.”

Guaranteeing responsiveness and accountability also needed to be tied to short terms in office.

FEDERALIST No. 57:

“The House of Representatives is so constituted as to support in the members an habitual recollection of their dependence on the people. Before the sentiments impressed on their minds by the mode of their elevation can be effaced by the exercise of power, they will be compelled to anticipate the moment when their power is to cease, when their exercise of it is to be reviewed, and when they must descend to the level from which they were raised; there forever to remain unless a faithful discharge of their trust shall have established their title to a renewal of it.”

On the other hand, Hamilton and Madison worried that too frequent elections would create instability.

Federalist No. 62

“The mutability in the public councils arising from a rapid succession of new members, however qualified they may be, points out, in the strongest manner, the necessity of some stable institution in the government. Every new election in the States is found to change one half of the representatives. From this change of men must proceed a change of opinions; and from a change of opinions, a change of measures. But a continual change even of good measures is inconsistent with every rule of prudence and every prospect of success. The remark is verified in private life, and becomes more just, as well as more important, in national transactions.”

Hamilton and Madison raised an issue they considered worse than instability - arbitrary and capricious public policy. They sought a structural solution, “necessary as a defense to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions.” [Federalist 63]

Hamilton and Madison’s solution was to have two separate bodies within the Legislative Branch, one of which would have longer terms of service. “The proper remedy for this defect must be an additional body in the legislative department, which, having sufficient permanency to provide for such objects as require a continued attention, and a train of measures, may be justly and effectually answerable for the attainment of those objects.’ [Federalist 63]

The Senate, having six year terms for its members, would be a defense against, “particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn.” [Federalist 63]

Hamilton and Madison cited the importance of deflecting transitory and ill-thought public passion throughout history. “What bitter anguish would not the people of Athens have often escaped if their government had contained so provident a safeguard against the tyranny of their own passions? Popular liberty might then have escaped the indelible reproach of decreeing to the same citizens the hemlock on one day and statues on the next.” [Federalist 63]

They concluded that not only terms of service, but the cycles of elections would create the proper balance to assure responsive and responsible democracy: “when compared with the fugitive and turbulent existence of other ancient republics, very instructive proofs of the necessity of some institution that will blend stability with liberty.” [Federalist 63]

Their solution is embedded in the U.S. Constitution.

ARTICLE I; Section 3

1: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof,3 for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

2: Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year;

The combination of having the entire Membership of the House of Representatives face the electorate every two years, and only a third of the Senate submit to re-election every two years created Midterm Elections.

Throughout American history, Midterm Elections have reshaped Presidential agendas, ended or launched new political movements, and marked watershed moments in the civic culture of the nation.

The 1858 Midterm, prior to American Civil War, showcased the fragmentation of the Democrat Party over slavery and catapulted the four-year-old Republican Party into becoming the dominant plurality faction in both the House and Senate. Sixteen years later, Republicans lost 96 House seats and their majority in reaction to the Grant Administration scandals, and the mismanagement of Southern Reconstruction. 

The 1894 Midterms heralded the reemergence of the Republican Party as a new dynamic force that would bring William McKinley to the Presidency in 1896. The voters also blamed President Grover Cleveland for a major economic depression, leading to jobless workers marching on Washington demanding relief. The Democrats lost 116 seats in the House, the largest defeat in history. Fourteen years later, splits in the Republican Party, especially the falling out between old allies, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, triggered Republicans losing 57 seats in the House and 10 Senate seats. This fragmentation worsened, leading to Woodrow Wilson winning the Presidency in 1912 with 42 percent of the popular vote in a three-way race.

The October 1930 Midterm reflected Americans reeling from the Stock Market Crash, facing a deepening Depression, and the collapse of trust in Republicans. The Republican Party lost 49 House and 8 Senate seats. The Republicans barely retained control of Congress by only two votes in the House and one in the Senate. Their Midterm debacle set the stage for the 1932 election, when Republicans lost the White House for twenty years, and lost Congressional power for three generations. Over the next 62 years, Republicans had ten years of intermittent rule in the Senate and led only two separate Congresses in the House.

America redefined itself in the 1994 Midterm elections. President Bill Clinton had overreached on universal healthcare. There was a revitalized Republican Party, fueled by Conservative Talk radio and the visionary leadership and aggressive tactics of Newt Gingrich.

Democrats were shocked, losing 53 House and 7 Senate seats. This brought Republican rule to the House for the first time since the 1952 election, a forty-two year hiatus. Only one Republican Member had served in the previous Republican era - as a House page.

Since 1994, Republicans have dominated the Legislative Branch, even gaining 6 House and 2 Senate seats in the 2002 Midterm, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bush Administration unpopularity and Congressional scandals led to voters ending Republican rule in the 2006 Midterms. President Obama’s policy overreach, Conservative Talk Radio, and the rise of digital and social media, brought Republican majorities back to the House in the 2010 Midterms and the Senate in the 2014 Midterms.

No matter the outcome of the 2018 Midterms, the wisdom of those who struck the balance between responsive and responsible government in the U.S. Constitution will once again be vindicated.

[Scot Faulkner advises corporations and governments on how to save billions of dollars by achieving dramatic and sustainable cost reductions while improving operational and service excellence. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served on the White House Staff, and as an Executive Branch Appointee.]