An Author's Reflection on the 2026 Midterm Elections
Yesterday's midterm elections returned control of both houses of Congress to the Democratic Party. Some Americans will welcome that outcome; others will not. But the more enduring lesson is that the American people retain the power to hold their government accountable and peacefully change its direction. The responsibility now shifts to those entrusted with governing.
In the closing pages of my book, The American Presidency: Lives, Leadership, and Legacy, published on February 18, 2026, I offered the following reflection. Written well before this election, it expresses a conviction shaped by years of studying the American presidency. I see no reason to change it today.
Why Democracy Will Prevail
Author's Reflection — The American Presidency, pp. 293–294
American democracy is not a fragile experiment perpetually on the verge of collapse. It is a remarkably resilient system—one that has endured more than 250 years of division, crisis, corruption, and aggressive leadership without breaking. Time and again, the United States has confronted moments that felt existential to those living through them, only to emerge altered, corrected, and ultimately intact.
History provides essential perspective. The nation has faced periods of polarization far deeper than those of the present day, and corruption that was once far more open, systemic, and unapologetic. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, political machines openly bought votes, bribery was routine, and scandals such as Crédit Mobilier and Teapot Dome implicated the highest levels of government. Yet even then, democratic institutions responded—sometimes slowly, sometimes imperfectly—through reform, exposure, and public pressure.
Presidential power has also been tested repeatedly. Leaders such as Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt aggressively expanded executive authority, at times defying norms, pressuring institutions, or acting unilaterally in moments of crisis. They were controversial in their own eras and often sharply criticized as dangerous or destabilizing. Yet the system absorbed their actions, constrained excesses, and—where necessary—responded with correction. Even grave failures, such as Jackson's Indian removal policies or Franklin Roosevelt's internment order during World War II, eventually provoked moral reckoning, legal reassessment, and institutional reform.
Seen in this historical context, contemporary debates—over executive orders, institutional pressure, or political norms—remain serious but not unprecedented. Modern governance is, in many respects, less corrupt and more transparent than in earlier eras. Civil service protections, post-Watergate ethics rules, judicial review, investigative journalism, and electoral accountability have made crude abuses of power more difficult to sustain. While public trust has fluctuated, the constitutional architecture has continued to function.
This record justifies cautious optimism. The United States has survived civil war, economic collapse, global conflict, political scandal, and prolonged internal division without descending into autocracy. The Constitution's design—separation of powers, federalism, an independent judiciary, regular elections, and a free press—was not intended to prevent conflict, but to manage it. Democracy in America has never been static or serene; it has been adaptive.
The presidency, as this book has shown, is powerful but not absolute. It bends under pressure, but it does not exist in isolation. Authority is constrained by institutions, contested by rivals, shaped by public opinion, and ultimately limited by time. No individual leader, however dominant or disruptive, has proven capable of overriding the system indefinitely.
The enduring strength of American democracy lies not in the perfection of its leaders, but in the durability of its institutions and citizens' willingness to hold them accountable. The system corrects itself not in moments, but over generations—through law, elections, norms, and civic engagement.
The experiment in liberty continues. It is imperfect, often frustrating, and frequently contentious. Yet its long arc suggests not fragility, but resilience. American democracy has endured precisely because it allows conflict, absorbs pressure, and adapts without surrendering its core principles. There is every reason to believe it will continue to do so.
Originally published in The American Presidency: Lives, Leadership, and Legacy (2026), by Paul G. Schmitz, M.D. Reproduced by Signal Over Noise Press, November 4, 2026.
