The upcoming 2026 midterm elections are being framed as a referendum on the current executive agenda. But to view them merely though the lens of policy preference is to miss the deeper structural issues within the current state of American democracy. As the nation approaches election day in November, the midterm elections represent a critical test of whether the legislative branch will re-establish its role as an effective check on executive power, or whether institutional resistance is something of the past for the US

The heart of this struggle within the US is the concept of “institutional resistance”. As argued by Heather Gerken in her piece “The Loyal Opposition”, institutional persistence served as a foundational guardrail in a democracy, where other bodies of the government utilize authorities such as subpoenas and budgetary control to restrict the executive branch in cases of overstepping by the executive. The current political landscape reveals a gap between this theoretical model and reality. In this current administration we have seen other bodies of government fail time and time again to restrict the executive. Congress especially is not so much a “main policy actor” anymore although as originally written in the Constitution, Congress is meant to be the main policy actor enacting and influencing policy, making Congress a prime example of a lack of “institutional resistance”. While guardrails are put into place in order to ensure these checks of power still occur, our current executive is a prime example of proceeding without thought for democracy. Without these checks of power institutions will continue to play a more performative, political role, as opposed to doing their real duties allocated towards them in the Constitution.

The resistance is further complicated by “pernicious polarization”, a concept written by Jennifer McCoy and Murat Somer in their piece “Toward a Theory of Pernicious Polarization and How it Harms Democracies: Comparative Evidence and Possible Remedies.” The 2026 political environment is not only characterized by policy disagreement, also by a fracturing of shared reality. When the legislative and executive branches cannot agree on the factual basis of problems, traditional oversight loses their efficacy. Oversight becomes more of a performance where other branches of government simply deal with the aftermath of the executive overusing power. This makes institutions appear as either performative or partisan, rather than institutional.

This midterm cycle is a test for the resilience of democratic guardrails put into place. If a change in legislative control fails to yield results in regards to oversight. The decay of these institutions may be deeper than previously theorized. Should Congress successfully force compliance on key executive investigations, it would signal a level of institutional resilience that current critics of democratic backsliding have dismissed.

The significance of the 2026 midterms lies not on which party wins, but the behavior that follows. If the new Congress cannot re-fortify its oversight role that was initially allocated towards them, the erosion of these checks may move towards a point of irreversibility. The health of our democracy depends on whether the legislative branch can act as a check on power, or if it will continue to be eclipsed by the executive it is tasked to monitor.