One-Term Nation: America’s Endless Cycle of Disappointment

“I think we are in for a series of one-term presidents, because the fundamental aspects of our society that people are mad about are really hard to fix. And I think a Republican president is going to come in and say we need to lower inflation, and stop wars, and, you know, have a better system of competing with China, and they aren’t gonna do an awesome job at it because it’s really hard, and then a Democratic president is gonna win saying those same three things, and it’s gonna be pretty tough for them because it’s still really hard, and then a Republican president will have a pretty good chance again.” - Andrew Mamo, Chief Communications officer for Senator Mallory McMorrow

This isn’t just a weary observation - it’s an accurate diagnosis of what American politics has become. People aren’t swinging between parties because they’re inspired; they’re doing it because they’re fed up. Look at the pattern: Obama in 2008, Trump in 2016, Biden in 2020, and now, astonishingly, Trump again in 2024. Every one of these men rode into office on a wave of dissatisfaction, only to find themselves crushed by problems that seemed to outlast every promise. 

Inflation still eats away at household budgets. Our foreign entanglements persist. Our attempts to "stand up" to China have largely consisted of saber-rattling and stale trade rhetoric. The two parties, despite their starkly different tones, keep pointing to the same crises. The problem? Neither side seems able to produce real solutions that stick. 

This is not because the wrong people keep getting elected, though that’s what we like to tell ourselves. It’s because these issues are too big, too knotted, too deeply embedded in how our systems work. No president can fix them in four years. But the campaign cycle demands exactly that kind of fantasy. The louder and simpler the promise, the better it plays. And when it doesn't work out, voters pivot, grasping for a new direction that feels like movement even when it's just retracing old steps. 

Unless we change how we engage with politics itself, this cycle won’t stop. We need to stop pinning our hopes on personalities and start building power around ideas and institutions that will outlast whoever’s currently sitting in the Oval Office. That means electing people who are actually equipped to wrestle with hard, structural problems, not just whoever seems like the least bad option that year. 

The truth is, people have been voting against rather than for candidates for decades now. That’s drained any sense of optimism out of the process and replaced it with a kind of exhausted dread. If we want better choices, we need to create space for them to exist. That could mean reforming the way primaries work, breaking the grip of money on campaigns, or making it possible for third parties to be taken seriously. None of that is easy. But the alternative is what we have now: a hollowed-out political culture where every new president is treated like a savior and discarded like a disappointment. 

We can’t keep imagining that the next person in office will finally fix everything. We need a different kind of politics; one rooted in real solutions, built to last, and unafraid of hard truths. Until we make that shift, we’ll stay stuck exactly where we are: frustrated, divided, and going nowhere fast.