No matter who wins the midterms, one thing is certain: Congress will only become weaker

We don’t know yet who will win what elections in the midterms.But we can already predict this much: the biggest loser is likely to be Congress.Instead of a lawmaking body, Congress is now the world’s largest green room.

All anybody seems to do is wait for their next television appearance or viral social-media moment.Even then, they often seem like the studio audience for the Donald Trump Show, there to cheer the president or boo him.Expect Congress to become even more ineffectual and dysfunctional for the next two years.

That’s bad for the country and bad for democracy.It wasn’t supposed to be like this.The Founding Fathers designed Congress to be the first branch of government.

Congress would make the laws we live under, whereas the president and the courts were merely charged with carrying out and interpreting those laws.If the president got too big for his britches, Congress had the ultimate weapon: It controls the budget, and nothing could happen if Congress didn’t provide the money.Sure, the president had a veto and a lot of power in foreign policy, and the courts could stop Congress from passing unconstitutional laws.

But the legislature would be first among equals.If you’re over 40, you probably remember when Congress still wielded a lot of power in Washington.Democratic committee chairs were almost as powerful as their party’s leader — more powerful than Jimmy Carter when he was president.

Newt Gingrich got Bill Clinton to sign a bunch of laws he didn’t like.Republican leaders in Congress got Richard Nixon to resign.

Hearings over Watergate, Iran-Contra and Monica Lewinsky gripped the nation.Even ObamaCare and the 2017 Trump tax cuts were largely written the way Capitol Hill bigwigs wanted them.But that power has been in decline for the past two decades.

As Congress passed fewer laws, presidents started making their own with executive orders — Barack Obama’s “pen and a phone.” Presidents stopped asking Congress for permission...