Excellent

Power Corrupts. Geriatric Power Corrupts,  Creakily

This issue has been limping along for many years when it should be a corner stone of our republican form of government. Consider a generic example: A young person, 24 years old, runs for town council and plans to go on to other elective office. Suppose there is a term limit of 8 years for the council seat, the person gets elected and serves 6 years. The person is now 30 years old. Our candidate next runs for mayor and wins the job that is term limited to four terms of 3 years each. The person serves for 6 years and decides to run for State Assembly at the age of 36 years. The Assembly has a term limit of 10 years and the person serves for 4 years before running for state senate at age 40. The state senate has a term limit of 12 years and the candidate served for 8 years until he is 48 years old. Next the candidate runs for U.S. House of Representatives and suppose the House had a 14 year term limit. The person serves for 10 years before deciding to run for U.S. Senate. Now 58 years old the person wins election and serves 2 terms – 12 years. At this point the candidate is 70 years old. All of this is to show that you can go through an entire life time of elective office without ever serving the full term in any office. Considering all this it is amazing to see some people stay in one office – for decades – causing a sort of suffocation of representative government. It is offensive and counter productive. I cannot figure out how it is not OBVIOUS to every citizen voter in this country that letting one so-and-so stick around in a particular position in ANY legislature, executive office or judicial appointment for an entire lifetime is WRONG – a blatant stab at REPRESENTATIVE government.

Further, the Important Point to make in the term limit debate is that a term limits law can be written to allow a candidate to RUN AGAIN for an office previously held after he/she has been out of that office for a specified number of years, maybe 6 or 8. That would give  another person a chance to hold the office and show people what a different kind of public service can accomplish.

We have seen over the past few years irrefutable proof that the claim that we need long serving, experienced people in office is WRONG. The disasters that have been foisted on Our Country by legislators who have been in office 30, 40, 50 or more years are all the evidence we need to explode the wisdom of the ancients argument. An important point – It is easier to tear down than to build up. We need a DEFINITE way to get rid of a bad apple and limit the damage one rotten person can do. People say that we need to keep good people around to make sure the legislature is running properly but that claim has been crushed by the geriatric geniuses in D.C. and various state governments.

GOVERNMENT WORKS BEST WHEN MANY GOOD PEOPLE CONTRIBUTE

We need to help younger people who can contribute get started in public office. It is a disgrace to see the tottering old timers being carried into Congress or the Supreme Court because this country of 300 million people can’t find anybody else to do the job. If we have a term limit law for all offices, judges included, it does not have to prevent people from serving in an office more than once – except Supreme Court justices and Federal Court judges.  After serving a full term in an office a person can run again for THAT office – after waiting the required number of years out of office. This will end the infernal nuisance of people voting for old so-and-so because he has been around so long he has built up the inside contacts used to get special favors done. We DO NOT need a government of special favors – we need a government of honorable, competent people. Term limits will invigorate the instituti0ns that make good use of them.

The term limit for U.S. House of Representatives should be 14 years. That is plenty of time for a WONDERFUL  Representative to get something accomplished. She can always run again for another full term in that office – just later. The average length of service in the House is under 10 years, so what is the problem? The term limit for U.S. Senate should be 18 years – 3 terms. The limit for Supreme Court justice should be 20 years. Those who aspire to serve on the Court can decide for themselves when they want to take up the position.

To put it my way, but nicely – Do your time and get out!