This chapter begins with painting a broad picture of campaigns and elections in the United States. It introduces a new element—campaign ethics—and revisits the phenomenon of the "permanent campaign". A discussion of campaigns and elections from an ethical standpoint provides standards for judging the health of the system. The permanent campaign allows us to explore the nexus between campaigning and governing and the future of both. Campaigns and elections are among the most important events in the life of a democracy. Campaigns help the citizenry come to a collective decision about who should control the levers of power in the country and elections make the use of those levers legitimate. The permanent campaign was perfected in the Bill Clinton administration and showed no signs of abating under either George W. Bush or Barack Obama. Polling is a significant aspect of the permanent campaign.

This chapter constitutes an effort to offer appraisal in an objective fashion. It constructs a series of benchmarks for Congress to meet. These benchmarks were built from a number of basic aspirations for congressional performance found in normative political theory and the thinking of Americans, particularly influential ones like the Founders. A large number of citizens still think of themselves as politically independent. Political activists watch different cable news stations—Republicans tend to like Fox, Democrats CNN. The news often frames political developments in threatening ways with profound effects on public attitudes. In the political world this is demonstrated by the constant shrinking of the news sound bite—a chunk of television or radio time allotted to the coverage of a candidate explaining her policy positions. Congress is also a transparent and responsive legislature in a media-saturated, robust …