This trajectory should concern anyone invested in the health of our democracy. Politics, at its best, is not a zero-sum contest where one side's gain must come at the other's expense. It is, or should be, a process of negotiation, compromise and shared progress. Yet today, only about 40 of the 435 House seats are considered genuinely competitive.

We the People are saddled with a duty to police elected officials not only on polling day but on all days in between. Citizen inertia or ind