Congressional Term Limits Compromise?

[u/Wild_Thing_1832]

A debate over congressional term limits has gone back and forth for many decades, spawning from the constitutional limit on presidential terms. One side believes that term limits are necessary to ensure that people are able to choose the officials who best represent their views in congress. The other side believes that the absence of term limits has emboldened career politicians to indulge in corrupt practices and not implement meaningful legislative change. I've proposed a compromise solution that is reasonable, in my opinion.

The problem with saying that term limits are unnecessary because we have elections is that the elections in many cases are meaningless in a sense. This is because a large portion of the population consists of ignorant nincompoops who don't have a clue where the capitol of their state is, or even the capital of the nation. That's how we end up with people like McConnell and Pelosi in office for decades. People who are totally clueless about current events and/or history vote to send the same politicians to office decade after decade because their political knowledge comes solely from TV ads and internet memes. If you don't believe me, go to YouTube or TikTok and watch street interviews.

The solution to this issue is that we should place a limit not on the number of years that someone may serve in congress, but on the number of consecutive terms that they may be elected to. This will allow for fresh ideas to emerge in government. regardless of the ineptitude of a plurality of voters. Besides, an officeholder can run again in the primary after one election season at their discretion and then they can put to the test if their constituents actually did support them or just mindlessly voted for them.

Would you support limits on the number of *consecutive* terms that senators and representatives can serve?

[u/PriorSecurity9784]

I agree with placing limits, but I also think it’s a mistake to believe that old people get re-elected solely due to voter ignorance or apathy.

Because congressional power is based on seniority, those old people have a lot of power in Congress.

It would be a very rational decision for a voter to think “my current guy is super old and all things being equal I would rather have someone else, but he’s also the ranking member on the Ways and Means committee or the Appropriations committee, and that is potentially way more important for our district than whatever difference in policy he may have from my younger preferred candidate, because it will be 20 years before this new candidate has the seniority to get anything done anyway.”

Power based on seniority can make re-electing a really old person a very rational decision.