Does Anyone Really Oppose Congressional Term-Limits?

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


I don't have a lot of time to write a bunch about this topic (or to research a few specifics, to be honest), but I thought I'd make a point that I haven't been hearing anywhere.

Most people think that our Congress is awful and has been awful for a little while now. While the blame for this often comes from partisan arguments like "Because the Blue Dogs are spineless", "Nancy Pelosi is incompetent", etc. I was trying to find a more institutional reason.

What I came up with were term limits. I don't think our founding fathers could have foreseen the inception of "career politicians" or the proliferation of lobbyists. The first politicians were more or less elder statesmen of business or industry, who after years of acquiring wisdom about how things work, would parlay that wisdom into a political campaign. That isn't the case anymore. Sure that's what the age minimum is for and it doesn't happen with every politician, but it's more of a problem than people realize. Not so much because politicians are too young or unintelligent, but because they have chosen it as a "career". They are not looking to serve our country, they're looking to carve out a career- which is incumbent, among other things, upon self-preservation. If you're a lawyer and a firm offers you a job that will last only 8 years- you better really love that firm in order to take that job since in 8 years you'll be back at square one. But what you'd really prefer is a position that could last as long as you wanted it to last.

The notion of career self-preservation is what causes so many politicians to act against their own beliefs. They are fare less likely to do what they know/feel is right if it means they're less likely to have a job in 3 years- they've got kids to support! Instead of telling their constituency, "I don't care if you don't like it. You voted for me to legislate for you and that's what I'm doing. I'll be outta here in 5 years anyway." Instead, they're spinlessly saying, "Hey, I'm hoping to be here a while, so let's find a way to get along. And by 'get along' I mean, 'I'll listen to whoever gives me the most money, thereby increasing my chances of winning re-election.'. That's a big problem

That dovetails conveniently with lobbyists. If you were a politician and knew you were gonna be there only 6 years, you'd probably bust your buns to make your mark and do some good while you had the time. With only 6 (or whatever number) short years to build your legacy, every vote of yours counts. Nowadays with Congressmen being in Congress for 15+ years, they know all the lobbyists and all the lobbyists known them. They've gone skiing in Vail for the past 10 years with their lobbyist pals and wouldn't have it otherwise. Then those lobbyists tell their friends who lobby for other special interests that their politician is for sale, so others join in the feeding frenzy. When this happens their campaign war chest grows in inverse proportion to their legislative integrity- the more of a whore they become, the bigger their campaign funds. The more campaign money they have, the more likely they are to scare off new political rivals, or to outlast those with smaller bankrolls, but more integrity.

The only thing that Republicans and Democrats can agree on is that our Congress sucks. Once you start there and work backwards, you see that term limits are a huge part of the reason why. What's odd is why no Congressman have proposed legislation to set term limits. Oh wait, that isn't odd at all- they have families to feed.

Since our politicians are such whores that they don't want to propose term limits, thereby serving the people and doing their jobs, it just proves how badly we need term limits.









I'm T.R. Slyder, and that's how you Tangueray.