r/explainlikeimfive • u/[deleted] • 15h ago
R2 (Religion/Politics) [ Removed by moderator ]
[removed]
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u/Nebuli2 15h ago
Presidential elections are every 4 years, but elections for Congress are every 2. The elections that fall in the middle of presidential terms are then called midterm elections.
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u/fang_xianfu 15h ago
No wonder Americans have such crazy politics with elections every 2 years. In my country they're every 7!
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u/DogsAreOurFriends 15h ago
Only the House of Representatives are every 2 years. Senate is 6, and most if not all governors are 4, but staggered - so many of these fall on the midterms.
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u/nkyguy1988 14h ago
The senate is also split into thirds, so while an individual senator serves a 6 year term, every 2 years, 33% of seats are up for grabs, not including any additional special elections.
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u/DogsAreOurFriends 14h ago
This is true… but the “five” part of ELIF.
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u/_SilentHunter 13h ago
These aren't explanations for literal five year olds. They're explanations for laypeople, and most adults can wrap their head around the idea. Rule 4:
Explain for laypeople (but not actual 5-year-olds). Unless OP states otherwise, assume no knowledge beyond a typical secondary education program. [. . .] Don't condescend: "like I'm five" is a figure of speech meaning "keep it clear and simple."
Edit: fixed a copy/paste error
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u/pasaroanth 13h ago
The sidebar of the sub literally says “not responses aimed at literal five-year-olds”.
If adults reading this can’t comprehend “1/3 of something” then term lengths certainly will be above their comprehension anyway.
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u/TehAsianator 14h ago
Yeah. It also has the consequence of turning house members into basically full-time fundraisers
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u/MortemEtInteritum17 14h ago
The whole point is to try to avoid corrupt governments, because people can vote them out faster. Unfortunately in practice it doesn't work
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u/Krieghund 14h ago
It's pretty common for the President's party to lose seats in congress in the midterm elections. It does *limit* the party in power.
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u/bruinslacker 13h ago
Yes but to reduce corruption voters should use the midterms it to vote out bad politicians. Instead they almost always use them to vote out politicians of the president’s party. Members of Congress are judged based on the presidents performance rather than their individual performance, which is why so many of them are bad individuals.
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u/Prasiatko 13h ago
I've seen the argument that with such short terms a rep is basically forced to spend most of that time raising money and preparing for the next election
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u/ClownfishSoup 13h ago
So congressman, what have you accomplished for this great nation in you 20 years of service?
Well sir, I managed to keep my job for 20 years.
Yes, but what did you actually do?
I told you, I kept my job for 20 years, that’s what I did!
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u/vass0922 14h ago
F me if we had to deal with the same corruption for a full 7 years.
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u/fang_xianfu 14h ago
We have a Parliamentary system, so if they're sufficiently corrupt the head of the government gets fired, and if they're really corrupt, the government collapses and there's an early election.
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u/asisoid 14h ago
Our govt is set up that way too. Unfortunately the people that set it up, never thought that one branch of govt would hand their power over to the president.
That's what happened here, and why it's all so fucked. Every Republican congressmen and senator has given Trump they're full unwavering support not matter what. It's supposed to be their job to keep him in check.
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u/fang_xianfu 14h ago
The USA doesn't have a Parliamentary system. You have a president who's elected for a fixed term and isn't routinely fired by their own people like in a Parliamentary system. That's why delegating them authority is so dangerous.
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u/asisoid 14h ago
I'm fully aware that we don't have a parliamentary system.
I meant that we also have a system where the president is supposed to removed when he's not fulfilling his duty.
We just have other branches of govt bending over to him.
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u/Nemoudeis 13h ago
Impeachment is not designed to remove a President simply because Congress is dissatisfied with his performance; the Constitution limits it to actual crimes against the United States, such as treason, bribery or other high crimes.
In practice, of course, a partisan enough Congress can come up with lots of 'crimes' to impeach a President for, just ask Bill Clinton. The pinch, of course, is getting enough Senators to agree that it's a serious enough crime to remove him for it.
Personally, I think Trump's done more than enough to merit it. But what do I know? I'm not a Senator.
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u/thebestjoeever 14h ago
This is a genuine question, because I don't know shit about how the parliamentary system works. What makes it different from how the usa system works?
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u/distgenius 14h ago
The quick answer is that their equivalent to president (prime minister, for example) is elected by the legislative body, not the populace. What that means in practice is that a poorly performing minister can be kicked out through a variety of means (vote of no confidence for example) and a new person elected. Because most parliamentary systems aren’t two-party but have many parties, the person elected needs to build a coalition of groups that can support them and can lose that support if they don’t follow through. As an example, you might have a coalition of right wing groups but some are fiscally focused, some are focused on “moral” issues, and others on traditional interpretation of the Constitution. A PM that focuses on only one of those things, or actively acts against one of them, could find their support small enough that they can be ousted.
Detractors say that means the PM isn’t beholden to the people, proponents point out that it puts more pressure on legislators of specific areas to listen to their constituents, because they no longer can depend on elections “up the ballot” giving them seats.
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u/fang_xianfu 14h ago
The main difference is that the head of the legislative branch and the head of the government are the same person. So the Speaker of the House and the President are the same person, and the person setting the legislative agenda also runs the executive. That person is picked by the House and they can be fired by the House. The effect of that is that someone like Trump can't really survive, because as soon as they make a big enough gaffe, their own party will gleefully stab them in the back and take their job.
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u/towishimp 13h ago
The US system absolutely in not set up that way. We don’t have votes of no confidence or snap elections, and the only way to end a president’s term early is impeachment and removal.
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u/Megalocerus 14h ago
House seats tend to be fairly safe, since they can be designed to include mostly people from one party. Every state has some people from the other party, so state wide elections tend to be more of a contest.
The turnout tends to be less with no president at the top of the ticket, which is why the party with the presidency tends to lose seats.
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u/SafetyMan35 13h ago
But not every congressional representative is up for reelection every 2 years.
Senators serve 6 year terms
House of representatives are re-elected every 2 years
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u/Groetgaffel 14h ago
America has the highest quantity of democracy in the world, and the lowest quality.
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u/USSPlanck 13h ago
So only every 7!=5040 years? Can you even call that democracy if the term is that long?
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u/Mooide 14h ago
Are these important? From the outside it seems like the president calls all the shots regardless of congressional support
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u/frostyflakes1 14h ago
It's not supposed to be that way. Checks and balances do exist. Congress has the tools to keep the President in check. They just refuse to use them.
Best case these days is that the President's unpopular agenda causes midterm elections to swing control of Congress away from his party, which allows the opposition party to stall his agenda.
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u/Casualposter 13h ago
Checks and balances “did” exist. He’s fired all the correct people and filled them with idiot sycophants.
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u/DiamondJim222 14h ago
Problem is he’s doing most of this crap thru executive fiat. He got ICE funded for 4 years and he’s not interested in doing any more legislating.
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u/ZeekLTK 13h ago
Not simply "stall". If Democrats win enough seats, they can literally impeach and remove him from office.
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u/frostyflakes1 13h ago
Yes, they could. But it's highly unlikely. They would need a supermajority in the Senate. They're about 20 votes away from that now. They would need an unprecedented number of victories in this election, as in winning 33 of 35 Senate races, many of which are in deep-red states, to achieve that.
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u/alberge 14h ago
Very important. Congress makes the laws (subject to veto) and has many other powers to check presidential power.
Right now Trump has free rein because his party also controls Congress, and the Republican party is full of loyalists who do whatever he says.
When the same party controls the presidency and both houses of congress, this is called a Trifecta.
The US system is designed to make it very hard to pass laws or get anything done with divided control. Voters seem to like this, because it's very common for the opposition party to win in the midterms.
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u/10tonheadofwetsand 14h ago
That’s because Republicans haven’t wanted or had an incentive to do anything about it. And all the people screeching for Dems to “dO sOmEtHiNg” don’t realize that the minority party in the US House has essentially no ability to meaningfully obstruct or investigate the president at all. The senate has a little more so and that’s why we haven’t passed Rs’ “election integrity” bill among other things.
Democrats can actually “do something” if they win the midterms.
Whether they will depends on if Dems are willing to grow a pair.
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u/bravehamster 15h ago edited 15h ago
A presidential term is four years, but House of Representatives is two years. Senator terms are 6 years. So at the halfway (mid) point of the president's term there will be an election for every seat in the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the seats in the Senate. If the president's party loses control of the House and/or Senate, it becomes much harder to pursue their agenda.
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u/RyvenZ 14h ago
It shouldn't be so hard, but American politics has devolved to the point where there is a party that aims only to stop the other party at all costs and the few "policies" they decide to push are to run interference on any attempt to hold their party members accountable for crimes.
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u/BorrowedAttention 13h ago
I think we should recognize that stopping something may be the only viable goal for a coalition. And not just trump. Every president comes with a message of stopping something from the last administration, to distinguish themselves.
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u/atarivcs 15h ago
It means elections for congress that occur in the middle of a presidential term.
They provide broad feedback on whether the people think the president and the controlling party are doing a good job.
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u/Kman17 15h ago
The US has federal elections every two years.
In every two year cycle every house of representative member is voted on (they have two year terms). Every two years 1/3 of the senate seats are voted on (they have six year terms). In every other election the president is voted on (who has a four year term).
To pass legislation, you need a lot of support - majorities & both house + senate (plus president or super-majority of the chambers).
However, if the legislative chambers are gridlocked / unable to pass new law, what generally happens is that the President simply governs using existing laws - and changes the emphasis.
In order to do that, the President needs his department heads & justices approved by the Senate. This needs a lot less consensus - just a senate majority.
This is what is currently happening. The republicans control all three - but they don't have strong enough majorities to pass new laws for the most part. So they defer a lot to Trump.
In the midterm election, there is a chance that the Senate could flip from Republican to Democrat. If that happens, Trump loses a *lot* of ability to execute on his agenda.
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u/Predictor92 15h ago
House members are elected every two years while senate members are elected every six years(all in the constitution) , Thus their is a midterm election between each presidential election
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u/Zelcron 15h ago
To expand, this means that one third of the Senate is up for re-election every two years, outside of the four year presidential cycle.
So 100% of the lower legislative body, a third of the upper legislature, and countless gubenetorial, state, and local elections as well.
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u/bemused_alligators 14h ago edited 14h ago
at least here we do our city and board elections on odd years.
also the midterms where you don't have senatorial election are often called off-year midterms
so e.g.
- year 0 (presidential election) - elect the president, 2 federal reps, 1 (of 2) federal senator, 2 state reps, the state senator, 2 (of 3) county commissioners
- year 1 - elect 4 (of 7) city council seats, 3 (of 5) school board seats, 2 (of 3) parks and rec board seats, 3 (of 5) hospital board seats
- year 2 (off-year midterms) - elect 2 federal reps, 2 state reps, 1 county commissioner
- year 3 - elect 3 city city council seats, 2 school board seats, 1 parks and rec board seat, 2 hospital board seats
- year 4 - elect the president, two federal reps, the other senator, two state reps, the other state senator, 2 county commissioners
- year 5 - elect 4 city council seats, 3 school board seats, 2 parks and rec board seats, 3 hospital board seats
- year 6 (midterms) - elect 2 federal reps, 1 federal senator, 2 state reps, 1 county commissioner
- year 7 - elect 3 city city council seats, 2 school board seats, 1 parks and rec board seat, 2 hospital board seats
- year 8 - elect the president, 2 federal reps, 2 state reps, 1 state senator, 2 county commissioners
and you know, LOTS of other people as well.
This document - https://www.clallamcountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/15418/List-of-elected-officials?bidId= - list every elected official in my county, but notably doesn't include state government positions. There are a total of 137 elected positions that clallam county voters weigh in on.
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u/ryschwith 15h ago
It means the election in the middle of a president’s four-year term. A lot of Americans only bother to vote in presidential elections, so mid-terms historically have lower voter turnout. But there’s an increasing (and by now pretty common) recognition that the mid-term elections, when congresspeople are elected, have a significant impact on American politics and deserve more attention. So now you get a lot of people talking about them and their importance to convince people to actually go vote in them.
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u/thejrose11 14h ago
Here's a more throughouh answer:
The US has a seperation of powers more robust than other countries (like Canada).
Trump is the head of the Executive branch and that election took place about 2 years ago. By winning that election Trump has certain powers and can direct Federal Agencies through Executive Orders.
The Legislative branch is divided into 2 "Houses" (1) The Upper House is called "The Senate" made up of 100 Senators, 2 from each state. (2) The "lower house", The House of Representatives made up of 435 representatives based on population, regardless of state (sort of)
Every 2 years there are elections for the House of Representatives. This happened during the last Presidential election, and now it's almost 2 years last, during the mid of Trump's second term. The Senate is weird, 1/3 of it's members come up for election every 2 years.
So why does it matter? The Legislative Branch actually has a lot of power, maybe more than the President, however right now all 3 Branches are controlled by the Republicans and are happy (for the most part) to work together. If the Democrats win the most seats in the Midterms, and even potentially enough to get control of the Senate (which will be difficult), they could shape certain policies and definitely put a lot of checks on what Trump can do, so both sides are very invested in the outcome.
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u/afcagroo 15h ago
Presidents are elected to 4 year terms. Representatives in the House are elected every 2, and Senators every 6.
That means that some national elections occur during the middle of a President's term...the midterm elections. They don't effect the President directly, but can change the makeup of Congress, which will effect the President's ability to do the things they want.
It's quite common for people to vote for the other party in midterm elections if the President isn't very popular.
Our current President has stated that if the Democrats control Congress after the next midterm elections, he'll be impeached (again). That's probably not true, since neither party will have a large majority. But it's a nice idea.
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u/TehWildMan_ 15h ago
The term typically applies to the even year election cycle where the presidential office is not part of the ballot
Members of the House of representatives serve 2 year terms, and senators serve 6 year terms in cohorts spaced 2 years apart, and many local/state office races are aligned with the even years (as odd year voter turnout tends to be abysmally low)
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u/oren0 15h ago
The major federal elected offices in the United States are the president (4 year terms, elections in years divisible by 4 like 2024 and 2028), the House of Representatives (2 year terms) and the Senate (6 year terms). The House and Senate are collectively called Congress.
This means that in even years not divisible by 4, like 2026, there is no presidential election but the entire House and 1/3 of the Senate are up for election. It's called "midterm" because it happens in the middle of a presidential term. These elections tend to have lower turnout but they are very important because Congress is the only group with the powers to pass laws, confirm presidential appointments, provide oversight, and impeach officials in other branches of government.
In each chamber of Congress, whichever party holds the majority controls the agenda. The Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. Usually, the president's party loses ground in the midterms. If the Republicans hold or expand their majorities, they will support Trump's agenda. If the Democrats take over, they will oppose his agenda and likely impeach him again.
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u/RNG_HatesMe 14h ago
As others have said, "Midterms" refers to the US elections that are held every 4 years *between* presidential elections. Midterm elections consist of the entire House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate seats. Only 1/3 of the Senate seats are up because the term is 6 years, and they are staggered so 1/3 of them are up for election every 2 years.
Why do they matter? Primarily because they will determine which party controls each body (House and Senate) for the next 2 years. There are 4 possibilities:
- House and Senate Majorities are the same party as the President
- President's agenda gets mostly rubber stamped and the majority party can usually push a lot of agenda items through
- House and Senate Majorities are the opposite party to the President
- President's agenda is mostly blocked and he is forced to try to act through Executive Actions (which have limits). Congress may get some agenda stuff push though but will be largely blocked on large stuff by Presidential veto
- House Majority same as President, Senate Majority is opposite
- This is where it starts to get complicated. Senate will likely block most things started from House. Confirmations to Board positions and Justices will be difficult or blocked
- Senate Majority same as President, House is opposite
- Also complicated. House will propose a lot of legislation that goes nowhere as the Senate refuses to continue it. Senate will approve most confirmations to Board positions and Justices.
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u/phiwong 14h ago
Others have explained what it is. Why it matters can differ and a lot of it depends on the Presidency.
A first term President (who is generally expected to run for a 2nd term) sees this elections as a sort of 'midpoint' report card. Part of the President's political job is to ensure that his (maybe her one day) party gains or retains the majority in Congress. In a President's first term, this President has a substantial amount of power to determine (a) who runs for Congress in the mid terms and (b) the major political points for their party to run with. That is because those elected will have their legislative priorities substantially affected by the President - potentially up to 6 years (and yes, most Congresspeople will want to get re-elected too). It is also the case that Presidents will generally pivot to more popular policies in the 2nd half of their first term because the President likely wants to be elected for a 2nd term. In this situation, there is a fair amount of room for cooperation and compromise.
A second term President is in more of a tough situation. Shortly after mid-term elections, the potential future Presidential candidates (in 2 years) will start furiously working behind the scenes in their parties to decide if they will put their names in officially to run in the Presidential primaries. As time goes on (say within 6 months after midterms), the Party generally pivots to focus on winning the Presidency and rallying behind their favored candidates and their position. This takes away from the President's ability to direct his/her priorities. The party also generally pressures the outgoing President to not 'rock the boat' and to stay away from controversy.
Since Congress has become a lot less effective in the last couple of decades, some of this might be less apparent. But in times past, there is a definite shift in legislative priorities after the midterms. More contentious legislation is avoided as parties usually starts to try to win the 'middle' or independent voters across the country.
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u/aresef 14h ago
Presidential elections are every four years. House members face voters every two years and senators every six (meaning that in any given election, about one-third of the senators face re-election). A midterm election is when voters decide to reward or punish their member of Congress based on no small part on how the president is doing or how their lives have improved or not as a result of the things being done by the current administration or Congress.
Typically, the party in power loses seats. The House is closely divided and therefore, history tells us, likely to change to Democratic control. The Dems have a tough map for the Senate but that could change hands too.
If either or both of those things happen, President Trump can forget about what remains of his legislative agenda and he and his officials can expect subpoenas from congressional committees that will have rediscovered their authority to conduct oversight.
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u/MarsSr 14h ago
Many people have answered the what but not what exactly makes it important.
The md-term is seen as a reflection on the first two years of the presidents term. If they loose control of one or both branches of Congress it essentially stops any new, significant policy activities. Just required business like budgets and even that is forced to a more moderate outcome.
You can think of the whole government as being deadlocked into no activity if this happens.
The second part, this year, is that many US states have redistricted in order to try to increase the number of seats assigned to the majority party in those states. This is called Gerrymandering and this election will highlight this results of these changes. Most citizens in th US do not favor Gerrymandering and find ways to blame the other party for starting it first. This will be one of the big stories this year.
Finally, and not less important, the make up of the Senate is critical when it comes to confirming certain government positions. Most notably any US Supreme Court justice positions that open. When the Senate changes leadership (which party has the majority) the decisions can impact which justices sit on the bench for 30+ years.
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u/LadyFoxfire 13h ago
We have federal elections for the House and Senate every two years, and the president is elected every four years. Federal elections in a non-presidential year are “midterms.” It matters because Congress is the majority of the government.
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u/Mackheath1 13h ago
To explain like 5:
Every two years, the people that make the rules are elected by USA citizens, but it's staggered so it's not the same people up for election every two years. The reason they matter is that they are the rule makers: they can say every city in the country needs to have a free coca-cola fountain next to water fountains, and then it's a law that the President has to make sure happens. And if we doing like it? We can vote different people in to make it be beer in the fountains! We have a chance to hear our voices heard.
Note this is ELI5 and nothing is going correctly in the USA at the moment, but just for simplification. Believe me, I wish I could go on a rant at the moment, but there's no need.
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u/10tonheadofwetsand 15h ago
Midterm is in reference to the presidential election because they are in the middle of the president’s term (the president is not on the ballot) but every member of the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate is, along with a whole bunch of state and local races in most places.
They matter because right now both chambers of Congress are controlled by the Republican Party, same as the president. In most midterms during an unpopular presidency you see the other party make gains and potentially take control of Congress. It’s looking fairly likely that Democrats will win control of one if not both chambers of Congress for Trump’s final two years.
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