All the Bad Ideas That Are Fit to Print

David Schanzer and Jay Sullivan have a whopper of a lousy idea:

There was a time when midterm elections made sense — at our nation’s founding, the Constitution represented a new form of republican government, and it was important for at least one body of Congress to be closely accountable to the people. But especially at a time when Americans’ confidence in the ability of their government to address pressing concerns is at a record low, two-year House terms no longer make any sense. We should get rid of federal midterm elections entirely.

You think they’d be making this same argument if 2014 weren’t looking so much like 2010? Or if 2010 hadn’t happened at all?

But let them continue:

The realities of the modern election cycle are that we spend almost two years selecting a president with a well-developed agenda, but then, less than two years after the inauguration, the midterm election cripples that same president’s ability to advance that agenda.

That’s a feature, not a bug. Each branch of government was designed by the Founders to be jealous of its own powers and prerogatives, as a backstop against the tyranny of one branch over the other two. This is basic civics, of which I’m sure Schanzer and Sullivan are aware.

They want an Il Duce or El Jefe to “get things done.” Which has worked out so well everywhere else it’s been tried.