There is a dangerous crisis of legitimacy in America, and it began in 2016.

Rather than accepting President Trump’s first victory as legitimate, the Democratic establishment and liberal media elites falsely accused Trump of being Vladimir Putin’s puppet and that he defeated Hillary Clinton because of Russian interference in the election. Supposedly smart, informed MSNBC pundits ran with the “Russian Collusion” story from day one. They kept running with it for four years, even though its feverish, conspiratorial claims were proven false.

The crisis accelerated from there. In late 2020 and early 2021, Trump tried to de-legitimize President Joe Biden’s victory by claiming the election was stolen. Not unlike the left’s Russian Collusion hoax, for the entire duration of the Biden administration, at least one-third of the country, egged on by right-wing influencers and politicians who were chasing social media clicks and fundraising dollars, believed Biden had stolen the election and that he was not a legitimate leader.

The 2024 election was no different. Despite Trump winning handily over Kamala Harris, one-third of the country still does not believe his administration is legitimate. The ICE protests in Minneapolis, for example, show that many liberals cannot accept the reality of living in a country that deports illegal aliens. They also believe that the Trump administration has launched a fascist coup to usurp liberal democracy, that its ICE agents are Nazi Brown Shirts, and that it is planning on stealing the 2026 midterm elections. Crazier things have happened throughout history, though liberals might be giving Trump’s cabinet and inner circle too much credit.

But there isn’t only a legitimacy crisis for presidential elections and the executive branch. This legitimacy crisis has spread to Congress, where it has been exacerbated by representatives on both sides of the aisle. Not only did both Democratic and Republican lawmakers fuel campaigns of delegitimization — Russian collusion and stolen election, respectively — but they have simply engaged in public behavior unbecoming of elected officials. Democrat Sara Jacobs comparing boob jobs to child sex changes, or Republican Nancy Mace getting into a censure tit-for-tat contest with another Democrat who called Elon Musk a “dick,” it doesn’t matter. They have turned Congress into an unserious clown show.

A major Muslim leader in NYC is calling for dogs to be forbidden because they “bother some Muslims.”

If Mainstream Muslims make us choose between keeping our dogs and them going home, the choice is easy. pic.twitter.com/FvaLpYE0oB

— Congressman Randy Fine (@RepFine) February 17, 2026

Although it’s certainly possible that fundamentalist American Muslims might one day seriously call for, say, an apartment building to ban indoor pets on the grounds of religious liberty, the suggestion that all Muslims are “coming for your dog” is absurd, not to mention grossly cynical. Yet Fine’s social media fracas and fear-mongering tactics speak to the rot inside Congress and both political parties. (RELATED: Muslims In American Community Vote Against Gay-Pride Flag)

Congress has an atrocious approval rating. The body is dead, and it has abdicated its legislative duties to the executive branch and regulatory agencies. Lobbyists and special interest groups virtually write most of the bills that do get passed, and so legislation ends up stuffed with pork. It is not in a position to be fixed now, thanks, in no small part, to performative, bomb-throwing representatives such as Fine. (RELATED: Congress Set To Rubber-Stamp Barrels Of Pork In Taxpayer Waste Free-For-All. Here Are 17 Egregious Examples)

Fine, like so many lawmakers from both parties, has turned his office into a cheap social media clown show, treating what should be a dignified, honorable job serving one’s country as a means to get famous and score some five-minute appearances on Fox News, Newsmax, CNN, or MSNBC. Political success is no longer about passing a smart law that helps the American people, fixing a cumbersome regulatory loophole, or doing something as simple as banning Congressional stock trading to restore trust in the system. It is not politics as a negotiation process, where both sides debate and agree on a compromise. It is politics as an entertaining meme war, a narrative battle, a form of escapism. Voters get sloppy rage-bait; elected officials get fundraising dollars and online fame. Bread and circuses for modern America.

The Swamp keeps humming along into the 2020s, and Congress continues sputtering toward total obsolescence. Rather than reforming the system and restoring legitimacy to an entire branch of government, lawmakers would rather spend their time, effort, and political capital fighting fake battles online with left or right-wing bogeymen. Once they leave Congress, having done practically nothing productive — in fact, they don’t just do nothing; they degrade Congress and inflict harm on the American people — they parachute away into a cable news contributor role, a sinecure at a think tank, a corporate board seat, or a cushy gig at a lobbying firm.

None of this will change until elected officials get serious and start acting like dignified, prudent, wise leaders who are deserving of the power the American people have bestowed on them. Of course, many of them are not dignified, prudent, and wise. Many of them are quite the opposite. But they should at least try to keep up appearances. Otherwise, our crisis of legitimacy will only get worse.