Our Take
Short Termism. A term usually associated with concerns about the perspective of corporate executives willing to sacrifice long term growths for short term gains. Whether the capital markets suffer from excessive short termism is open for debate. However, it appears that this phenomenon is not confined to the business world, and it may be strangling our political system. While there had always been an immediate term focus in politics, especially in the House of Representatives with its shorter terms, the beauty of our political system was to allow that near-term perspective to influence, but not consume the longer-term policies. Unfortunately, over the last twenty-five years, there has been an increase in the philosophy that “good politics makes good policy” resulting in a fractured Congress with little incentive to sacrifice immediate benefit for long term gains. Perhaps this is a byproduct of our on-demand society and its balkanized news sources. Whatever the cause, the recent decisions by Senators Corker and Flake, while heralded by some of the left, are the epitome of this problem. Sure, the odds were against them in their respective races – but favorites don’t always win – and that’s why we play the games. Their failure to even give their supporters a chance to show that the extremist politics espoused by their primary candidates is not viable, means that in the long run, the trend to short termism will likely grow even stronger. Another, and perhaps even more troubling example of this pernicious problem can be seen in the current treatment of Senator McConnell by right-wing media outlets. Just last year he led the effort to stall (some say steal) the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice, all but ensuring a conservative voice in that Chamber for decades. On issues so close to many conservative’s hearts, this decision is far more important than any one election. And yet, they continue to villainize him.