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Would term limits for all Politicians help to clean up Congress?

Term Limits: The Only Way to Clean Up Congress - opinions?

https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/term-limits-the-only-way-clean-congress

Posted - January 15, 2020

Responses


  • 19942
    I think it would help greatly, but it also has to come with not permitting them to be lobbyists once they are out of office.  The third prong should be campaign finance reform.  Corporations and very wealthy individuals should not be able to contribute millions of dollars to buy elections.  
      January 15, 2020 12:39 PM MST
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  • 47
    Yes - the stipulations you posted is spot-on...
      January 15, 2020 2:02 PM MST
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  • 19942
    Thank you :)
      January 16, 2020 7:18 AM MST
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  • 7280

    Not really---the people who are presently elected to Congress are there because the electorate who put them there are poor judges of whom to vote for.

    And everyone knows what "floats."

    Unless we somehow develop an educated and informed electorate, we will continue to have the types of leaders we have now.

    But as Alexis de Tocqueville commented in his book, Democracy in America, the people living in democracies tend not to want to do the things which will preserve the democracies in which they live.

    So, since I seldom find the necessary hunger for education and the abilities to chose more wisely that that education engenders----well, I just hope this downward slope we're on just levels out.

      January 15, 2020 2:21 PM MST
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  • 5391

    There is no single do-all, end-all solution. But what exists now surely is not getting it done. 
    We can see what the lack of term limits produces: Entrenched partisanship and fruitless gridlock. 

    The biggest problem is that the very individuals whose terms would be limited are the ones who vote it into law.
    There is another, more effective alternative, though also rather unlikely: better informed voters who show up on election day to vote the chumps out. 

      January 15, 2020 3:53 PM MST
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  • 19942
    Voting the chumps out is certainly one way to end never-ending terms, but unfortunately, the candidates who come up after them are not much better than what you're voting out.  I would bet that there are voters who think better the devil you know ...
      January 16, 2020 7:20 AM MST
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  • 17364
    No, not for all politicians.  
    For the U.S. Congress?  YES
      January 15, 2020 6:18 PM MST
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  • 1152
    People who believe term limits will solve anything are largely delusional.

    It recently came  to my attention that political scientists have identified a large sub-group of the American polity who naively believe that the inherent problems with politics would be solved if we just got rid of politicians. If only "regular folk" with "common sense" were in charge, everything would be peachy.

    I suspect most of the clamoring for term limits largely comes from this segment of the population.

    I'm pretty sure most of these people would rather have a lawyer, thoracic surgeon, or auto mechanic with 20 years experience  working on their behalf rather than someone who just got the job 3 months ago. Yet, somehow, they think a legislator who barely knows where the bathroom is will somehow be superior at legislating than someone who has done it for decades.

    I'm not sure which particular cognitive malfunction this belief falls under, but it certainly is a malfunction.
      January 15, 2020 6:42 PM MST
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  • 7280
    Just the facts---and a nice job.

    Billy Joel said it well:

    ...carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleeding; Blame it all on yourself 'cause she's always a woman to me
      January 16, 2020 12:49 PM MST
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  • Its noble to try and improve upon what's not working but politics will always be dirty and governments will always be largely self serving.
      January 16, 2020 6:58 AM MST
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  • 5455
    Maybe not.  My own state's last governor was doing a pretty good job but he got term-limited out and was replaced with a governor who's on the wrong side of some important issues (which some of this year's ballot initiatives should override) and the other complaint I hear a lot about the current governor is that she's fixing things that weren't broke so I don't think term limits would actually fix anything that people think are wrong with Congress.     
      January 16, 2020 9:37 AM MST
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  • 7280
    Livvie reminds us of something that is sometimes forgotten in these discussions..

    During the impeachment hearings in the House, we heard from career civil servants who were dedicated, knowledgeable, and also committed to important to moral principles.

    We choose whom we elect.

    The American people can elect politicians who also wish to have an equally honorable full-time and long-term career in the national Congress. 

    So far we've done a good job with the House in the last election.

    Now it's soon to be time to start working on the Senate.
      January 16, 2020 12:43 PM MST
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