Rep. Michael Gallagher’s decision not to seek re-election this year is understandable from a personal point of view. But it’s also another dispiriting sign of the decline of Congress as a place where people of intelligence and principle believe they can solve national problems.
The 39-year-old Republican said Saturday that he wants to devote more time to his young family. He believes in term limits for Congress and says he never ran for office with a goal of making it a lifetime career. He was first elected to his northeastern Wisconsin seat in 2016.
Yet Mr. Gallagher will be missed as a rare Member these days who wants to do something other than promote his social-media brand. As a former Marine intelligence officer who served in Iraq under Centcom Commander David Petraeus, Mr. Gallagher has focused on America’s fading ability to deter its enemies.
In this Congress he has chaired the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, a rare corner of the House that has done something useful. He and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois have worked together to investigate the growing threat from China.
This includes U.S. vulnerability to Chinese espionage, cyber-attacks and influence schemes. The committee has been helpful in drawing attention to U.S. defense vulnerabilities, especially in the Indo-Pacific. Mr. Gallagher has argued in particular for urgently buying and deploying more long-range missiles in the Pacific theater that are crucial to deterring a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
This military expertise is especially important given the Republican Party’s drift in the Trump era toward isolationism. The House GOP is increasingly dominated by Members who don’t support a military buildup despite the growing cooperation of U.S. adversaries China, Russia and Iran. The Senate still has some traditional hawks, but Mr. Trump’s influence is eroding support for peace-through-strength and long-time alliances even in the upper Chamber.
It’s hard to believe Mr. Gallagher’s decision to retire wasn’t influenced by the continuing dysfunction of the current House. The select China committee may not last past the current Congress, and he’s too junior to become Chairman of Armed Services. His principled stand against the GOP impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas suggests his lack of patience with his party’s resort to stunts that accomplish nothing.
Congress is increasingly a body for unserious people in both parties. The Adam Schiffs and Marjorie Taylor Greenes play to the cable TV and Twitter (now X) crowds and feed the partisan poison that makes legislative compromise more difficult.
This would matter less if this were the 1990s, a time of peace and prosperity. But the world is more dangerous than it’s been since the 1970s, and probably the 1930s, with rogue nations on the march. The U.S. needs leaders who understand these challenges, and too many talented men and women have concluded that Congress isn’t a body for people who want to make a difference.
