Why do midterm congressional elections matter?
About this video
John Dickerson explains that midterm congressional elections matter because they act as a referendum on the president. They also decide which party controls Congress, which can mean a rubber stamp for the president, more investigations and bargaining, or even gridlock.
You'll be able to
- explain why midterm elections are often called a referendum on the president.
- describe what tends to happen when the president's party controls Congress.
- describe what tends to happen when the president's party does not control Congress.
Key words
- midterm election
- A congressional election held halfway through a president's four-year term.
- referendum
- A vote that works like a public verdict, here on whether people approve of the president.
- rubber stamp
- Approving whatever someone wants without much questioning.
- gridlock
- A situation where government is stuck and important laws do not get passed.
- partisanship
- Strong loyalty to one political party, often with hostility toward the other.
Transcript
- [Narrator] Why do midterm congressional elections matter?
- Congressional elections matter because they are often and have increasingly been a referendum on the president. So it is a kind of real test from real voters doing real voting about whether people approve of what the president's doing or disapprove of what he's doing.
But then there's also an important question of who has control of Congress? If the president's party has control of Congress the way it's been working in recent history is, that means he's basically gonna get a rubber stamp for what he wants to do. If the president's party is not in control of Congress that means there are gonna be more investigations into the executive branch.
And that's of course what the legislature is supposed to do but it means more investigations, it means that Congress might try and pass its own legislation and then work to some kind of accommodation with the president. Given the partisanship in America right now though, when you have the executive in the control of one party and the legislature in the control of another party, it also very well could mean complete gridlock and a situation in which many of the nations most important questions don't get answered.
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