Do we really need midterm elections?

Voters fill out ballots.
Voters fill out ballots Nov. 4, 2014 at Prospect Park United Methodist Church in Minneapolis.
Bridget Bennett / MPR News

Television viewers aren't the only ones getting fed up with the midterm elections.

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Duke Professor David Schanzer and his student Jay Sullivan argue that two-year terms for members of Congress are outdated.

They argue the short terms also stand in the way of progress on issues like immigration, entitlements and climate, which are "either too complex or politically toxic to tackle within a two-year election cycle."

They recognize that the proposal carries political consequences:

The main impact of the midterm election in the modern era has been to weaken the president, the only government official (other than the powerless vice president) elected by the entire nation. Since the end of World War II, the president's party has on average lost 25 seats in the House and about 4 in the Senate as a result of the midterms. This is a bipartisan phenomenon -- Democratic presidents have lost an average of 31 House seats and between 4 to 5 Senate seats in midterms; Republican presidents have lost 20 and 3 seats, respectively.

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.

Schanzer joins The Daily Circuit to talk about the proposal and what it would take to make it a reality.

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