Posted on August 12, 2022 by Phil Mason
Over the last few decades it has become fashionable for conservatives to demand laws that restrict the number of terms an elected official can serve. The theory was this simple restriction would create fresh faces with new ideas unsullied by long term incumbents. The master minds who implemented term limits failed to consider two things.
The most important fact they ignored is there has always been term limits. They are called elections. Our Constitution endows the voters the authority every two years to replace – or retain – all 90 legislators. 2022 is a case in point. The voters decided to impose term limits on nearly twenty incumbent legislators. We will have nearly two dozen fresh faces in the House in 2023 and nearly an equal percentage in the Senate,
The second area the master minds ignored was the entrenched bureaucracy. Imposition of term limits on elected officials only serve to empower the unelected swamp creatures that control every aspect of the legislative process. You might be surprised to know that I have personally witnessed staff tell elected legislators that they were not going to follow direct orders with the following: “I was here before you were elected and I will be here after you are gone and I’m not going to “do that.”
Legislators sacrifice financially with a $24,000 salary plus expenses so they can be attacked by their opponents across the aisle AND their “loyal” constituents. Meanwhile the “experts” who have taken up residence in the basement and 2nd floor (Some of them have been there for three decades and are paid four times that amount. While the difference in pay is stark the fact is they take up permanent residency in offices and are not subject to term limits of any kind.
So, if you want to have influence over the persons making the decisions that affect every facet of your life, I suggest strong advocacy to impose term limits on the minions who run the institution and use the election process to impose selective term limits on the bad electeds while retaining the right to keep the good ones.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
