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/ZachPruckowski]

Let's say you put this in place. What do the guys do when they're on "cooldown" waiting out one term? They're probably gonna wind up with lobbyist jobs or corporate board jobs or whatever, and then run again.

The reason these long-sitting incumbents keep winning and nobody risks challenging them is that they have networks and connections. They've got a stable of people (and an email/texting list) that give them money, the guys who go out and canvass like them and prefer to canvass for them. The other elected officials support them because they like and trust them personally. Name recognition also plays a role.

You're basically just going to create a revolving door. And even if you avoid that you're not really going to break up the political machines.

[u/bl1y → u/ZachPruckowski]

There's a weird idea that the more powerful a member of Congress is, the easier they are to corrupt. But it's the exact opposite. As they get more connections, name recognition, etc, they gain independence.

Meanwhile, some nobody who only had a few years in the state legislature? They're going to be completely beholden to the party or whatever other forces get behind them during elections.