This essay was written in 2012, and is even more relevant today. The Presidential Election referred to is the 2008 election of Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin.
There
has recently been increased interest in Term Limits for elected
offices. It has become blatantly obvious to even the rank and file
citizenry that career politicians are a large (if not the largest)
part of the problem in all levels of government. However, there are
several problems with getting from here to ANY semblance of term
limits, and in addition there is of course considerable disagreement
as to what such limits should be.
At
the Federal level, the first problem - how to get there - is a very
high hurdle. To begin with, it is virtually inconceivable that any
Legislative body is going to cut its own head off by passing term
limit legislation. No one is likely to vote himself or herself out
of a job, especially one as lucrative and cushy as political office.
Since such a vote would have the same effect as firing them,
threatening to throw them out has no real clout. Furthermore, at the
Federal level, there is no such thing as a referendum that would
allow the citizenry to pass term limit legislation, and even if there
were, the next bunch of crooks in office would just repeal it. Worse
yet, at the Federal level, passing a Constitutional Amendment (which
is what is ultimately needed) requires either two thirds of Congress
(not gonna happen) or two thirds of the Legislatures of the States
(also very unlikely) to propose such an Amendment. And then three
fourths of the States must ratify it. Prospects are dim.
Even
though hope of such a Constitutional Amendment is vanishingly small,
let's take a minute to look at what such Term Limits might be. Most
suggestions are for two or three terms, somewhat akin to the two-term
limit that was passed for the Presidency. (Note that this Amendment
probably was successful only because most of Congress and the State
Legislatures had little hope of winning the Presidency.) Some
suggestions at the Federal level have been for a fixed time limit,
with 12 years (6 terms of the House or 2 terms of the Senate) being
the favorite.
Unfortunately,
the problem with the career politician is that he (or she) is always
running for the next election. The minute that the current election
is won, the campaign for the next election is the primary focus for
not only most of his time, but for what his vote is going to be for
or against any bills that come up. To me, this is the root of the
problem. With this in mind, it seems obvious that the proper term
limit is ONE.
Even
passing a Term Limit Amendment limiting all terms of elected office
to one term still leaves a gaping hole. This was blatantly
illustrated in the last Presidential election. ALL of the contenders
were currently holding office at the time, and most spent the better
part of two years campaigning rather than addressing the task they
had been elected for. Ironically, since the winner had only just
been elected to the Senate in the previous election cycle, he
basically reneged on his obligations to his constituents to campaign
for a better job. As a blurb that circulated on email suggested, try
that on YOUR job.
My
proposal for a Constitutional Amendment, albeit probably
unattainable, is the following. Since the problem is not only that
the career politician sucks off the public teat all his life, but
also the fact that he is also constantly campaigning for the next
election, there is only one way to end the farce. To wit:
No person shall be eligible to be a candidate for any elected public office while currently holding any elected public office. This restriction shall be in addition to any other qualifications for the particular office.
That oughta 'git 'er done'!
