Take It To The Limit

Want a controversial take? Here you go: Mandatory term limits for Congress are stupid. Never mind that the idea that Congress is ever going to vote itself out of office is a pipe dream. It is never, ever going to happen. If you think that the United States Congress is ever going to pass legislation which guarantees that their job has an expiration date, then you're a fool plain and simple. But the worst thing about automatic term limits is that it actually nullifies the one power we have over our elected representatives, which is our vote.

Remember when all that stood in the way of a multi-trillion dollar spending bill was Democrat Senator Joe Manchin? He was the fly in the ointment and ultimately put the kibosh on his own party’s plans to spend trillions of tax dollars. Why would he stand up to his party like this?

You can be sure that a big reason is that he has to stand for re-election in a couple of years, and to have a chance at keeping his job he needs to at least appear to be somewhat moderate to West Virginia voters. You know, the West Virginia voters who went for Donald Trump in 2020 by nearly 39 percentage points?

Now imagine the same scenario with a Joe Manchin who is term limited, and whose time in office would automatically expire in 2024. With three years to go and no further electoral worries, do you suppose he might behave differently? He could throw his constituents under the bus and score all kinds of perks for himself by toeing the party line. In fact, he might be incentivized to play along to score himself a nice job at CNN or some other left-leaning organization…since he’s going to need a job soon. So screw the voters…he’s going to take care of Joe.

Think your vote isn’t worth much now? Imagine six years under a term-limited Mitch.

The only leverage a citizen has over his elected representatives (short of revolution) is the power to give or withhold his vote, and those representatives need to be reminded of this regularly. The problem isn’t politicians staying in DC too long, it’s politicians staying in DC with no fear of their electorate. The power to term limit a politician should never, ever be taken out of the hands of the people. Mandatory term limits would do exactly that.

Once your representatives no longer need you, they no longer need to consider your wishes and are free to do as they please…and they will absolutely take it to the limit.