What's the argument for term limits?

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

The committees themselves are probably inevitable. They are an organic component of how legislation and regulation are designed. But seniority doesn't have to be the primary qualification for being a committee chair. It would make a lot more sense to just base it off of educational background and/or experience with the affected topic.

Experience itself has a seniority component, but obviously, that can cover time spent outside of being in office.

Nevertheless, if voters knew that electing someone new wouldn't necessarily mean losing influence for their state or district, there would probably be shorter durations of time spent in office in Congress by each member, and politicians themselves would have less reason to keep running for the same office.

nothing's inevitable.

[no worries]

There are term limits, it's called voting.
The real issue is politicians picking their voters..................................... gerrymandering.
They should have an independent commission or an equal number of people of both parties deciding voter districts.
They should be designed in square blocks.
Not anything that resembles a lake going into a river, then expands into another lake, that narrows to a drainage ditch, only to expand again into a pond.

[goat]

nothing's inevitable.

The entire system is fubar and about to collapse so term limits are the least of our problems. Benjamin Franklin said "We need a revolution every 200 years, because all governments become stale and corrupt after 200 years" but Franklin was forced to walk it back because government is legalized corruption. We get the government we deserve.

History tells us that all empires fall from within and that ethics has a very slim chance at being part of rebuilding. This became clear with the corruption at the top of BLM and Oath Keepers. We the people need to accept the fact that the lack of virtue in our leaders is what led us to anarchy. Reform needs to start with the principles of those at the local level.

[ThatOwlWoman]

Term limits end the current career politician track. Sure, a politician can move from elected position to position, but they can't become an entrenched entity that gains evermore power within any particular part of the government. It turns being elected from being a career to being a temporary job one volunteers to do.

I'd also say that we should eliminate most or all retirement perks for politicians once term limits are in place. No more golden parachute for doing a mediocre job in office.

The objective of all this is to eliminate politicians becoming perpetual bureaucrats along with their need to pander to special interests and political donors to remain in office. When they know they can only stay for a set of limited terms and get nothing in terms of a lifetime reward for that, they will have more reason to focus on the job at hand rather than some long-term strategizing to make their elected office a career.

I have to agree with this. Everyone of us has learned in grade school that the first president was a "farmer" before he was a president. The whole idea was to elect regular people to serve for a short time as they did the work of the people. It was not to establish a body of career politicians who are so far removed from the rest of us and our concerns that they serve only to perpetuate their own power. The post-service benefits need to go, too. Where else would you work for a mere two years, lose your job, and still receive benefits for life? If we restore Congress to what it was meant to be -- regular people elected to represent other regular people -- maybe we won't have the f'd up mess that we have now.

[NiftyNiblick]

this is dumb on many levels.

I disagree.

[SmarterthanYou]

term limits are being proposed because a majority of the population are brain dead idiots continuing to vote for the only name they recognize instead of taking a vested interest in who is supposed to be serving them. Our demise as a nation due to the majority should be well deserved.

[Yakuda]

I absolutely don't agree with them.

I resolutely oppose the 22nd Amendment.

We have elections.
We can limit the term of any office holder with those.

Ted Kennedy won eight 6 year term Senate races in Massachusetts, although he didn't live to finish the last one, plus a special election for a partial term in 1962.

I was actually too young to vote for him in 1962 and 1964, no 18-year old vote yet for the latter,
but I voted for him in 1970, 1976, 1982. 1988, 1994, 2000, and 2006.

How was it anybody's business to tell his Massachusetts constituents that they couldn't vote for him?

FDR, possibly the greatest of all US Presidents, was elected four times.
He would have been President when I was born if he lived to complete his last term.

Terms limits have no reason to exist.

I tend to agree that term limits are unnecessary but tell us why a racist lying asshole like joke Biden should have lived his entire adult life with never having an actual job. He and every life long politician have essentially lived on welfare. They have produced NOTHING.

[NiftyNiblick]

I have to agree with this. Everyone of us has learned in grade school that the first president was a "farmer" before he was a president. The whole idea was to elect regular people to serve for a short time as they did the work of the people. It was not to establish a body of career politicians who are so far removed from the rest of us and our concerns that they serve only to perpetuate their own power. The post-service benefits need to go, too. Where else would you work for a mere two years, lose your job, and still receive benefits for life? If we restore Congress to what it was meant to be -- regular people elected to represent other regular people -- maybe we won't have the f'd up mess that we have now.

I believe in government and thus believe in professional career civil servants, Owl.
Politics are a revered way of life here in Boston.

I'm also no fan of Joe Sixpack--the "regular guy"--as a representative of the people.
I trust in what elites can do because making oneself elite is a pretty formidable task, with or without class privilege.
I suppose that's not the Midwestern mentality, but I am, after all, the quintessential easterner., right?

I guess the reality is that sensible people can have alternate perspectives.
I am really and truly opposed to term limits.

One other thing about corruption, however. It's not good.
It's not the slightest bit as costly, however, as bad policy.
In the long run, enlightened policy diminished by a little insider pork leaves me far, far ahead of bad policy.
That's an observation that I've made over a lifetime of considering the subject.
Again, reasonable people can disagree.

[Yakuda]

I believe in government and thus believe in professional career civil servants, Owl.
Politics are a revered way of life here in Boston.

I'm also no fan of Joe Sixpack--the "regular guy"--as a representative of the people.
I trust in what elites can do because making oneself elite is a pretty formidable task, with or without class privilege.
I suppose that's not the Midwestern mentality, but I am, after all, the quintessential easterner., right?

I guess the reality is that sensible people can have alternate perspectives.
I am really and truly opposed to term limits.

One other thing about corruption, however. It's not good.
It's not the slightest bit as costly, however, as bad policy.
In the long run, enlightened policy diminished by a little insider pork leaves me far, far ahead of bad policy.
That's an observation that I've made over a lifetime of considering the subject.
Again, reasonable people can disagree.

Boston tells us all we need to know.

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

The entire system is fubar and about to collapse so term limits are the least of our problems. Benjamin Franklin said "We need a revolution every 200 years, because all governments become stale and corrupt after 200 years" but Franklin was forced to walk it back because government is legalized corruption. We get the government we deserve.

History tells us that all empires fall from within and that ethics has a very slim chance at being part of rebuilding. This became clear with the corruption at the top of BLM and Oath Keepers. We the people need to accept the fact that the lack of virtue in our leaders is what led us to anarchy. Reform needs to start with the principles of those at the local level.

but not this time.

we're pulling out of the nosedive.

term limits is part of making the world better.

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

I disagree.

well, good for you.

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

I believe in government and thus believe in professional career civil servants, Owl.
Politics are a revered way of life here in Boston.

I'm also no fan of Joe Sixpack--the "regular guy"--as a representative of the people.
I trust in what elites can do because making oneself elite is a pretty formidable task, with or without class privilege.
I suppose that's not the Midwestern mentality, but I am, after all, the quintessential easterner., right?

I guess the reality is that sensible people can have alternate perspectives.
I am really and truly opposed to term limits.

One other thing about corruption, however. It's not good.
It's not the slightest bit as costly, however, as bad policy.
In the long run, enlightened policy diminished by a little insider pork leaves me far, far ahead of bad policy.
That's an observation that I've made over a lifetime of considering the subject.
Again, reasonable people can disagree.

you're an imbecilic snob.

[NiftyNiblick]

you're an imbecilic snob.

You're "Depressingly Common Joe Sixpack" after too much methamphetamine.

[SmarterthanYou]

term limits is part of making the world better.

altering the way the government is run or elected to avoid the stupidity of the majority isn't going to help the majority become more aware, only stupider.

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

altering the way the government is run or elected to avoid the stupidity of the majority isn't going to help the majority become more aware, only stupider.

but it helps keep corruption down. its good.

are you in full shrug?