Few, I'm sure, would find it surprising that members of Congress have never voted to reduce their authority, power, or the expansion of both at any time in their history. Harder to, it seems, that they ever will. But the widely accepted practice in a whole variety of other elected positions - mayors, governors, and presidents - of term limits is an idea that will see you removed from any holiday card list or honored constituents roll if you dare utter it in the presence of legislators. Term limits encourage intergrity, truthfulness, character, respect and intelligence from our representatives to us and to their elected jobs. Funny how most members of Congress can't honestly include those adjectives in their wonderfully written campaign biographies.
When our nation adopted and ratified the Constitution as its ruling legal document, it did not include a limitation on any elected position, however, a standard was established by President Washington to serve only eight years, and the standard was followed by all his successors until Franklin Roosevelt. Elected four times to the office of President, FDR managed to appoint a majority of the Supreme Court justices by the time he died, socially re-engineered America's way of thinking about wealth and government sponsorship, and managed to establish a successful wartime economy after failing at a peaceful one for almost a decade. In 1951, the 22nd Amendment was ratified limiting presidents to no more than ten years in office, two of which must come from succeeding a prior president.
However, presidents rarely face easy reelection campaigns. An united, organized national party who have nominated another candidate always pose a strong threat to the incumbent, but in Congressional races, the only time a race can be guaranteed to be up for grabs is if it is vacant. As can be seen by reelection rates, the incumbent candidate is at a distinct advantage of being reelected. In only five election cycles since 1964 has the reelection rate for members of the House been below 90%, and the Senate is not much lower. This is due mainly to the name recognition and pork spending sent home by candidates. But this cycle of non-recycle is dangerous.
When preparing for the formation of the United States, the Continental Congress set a committee to research and propose various forms of governments. On behalf of the state of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson wrote a Resolution for Rotation which proposed term limits "to prevent every danger which might arise to American freedom by continuing too long in office..." and "...that in their future elections of delegates to the Continental Congress one half at least of the persons chosen be such as were not of the delegation next preceding." A contemporary of Jefferson, George Mason, stated that "...nothing is so essential to the preservation of a Republican government as a periodic rotation." Obviously, the principal of limiting government is not a new or novel idea, which brings us to the issue today.
More and more individuals are lashing out on Congressional leaders for their actions over the past months regarding the expansion of government unseen in many years. While in the past both parties can be found guilty of toeing the line, and in some cases stepping right over it, the majority party today is going above and beyond any power granted to it by the Constitution. Today, the leading issues are involving cap and trade and health care reform. Congressmen are being chased out of town hall meetings, Senators are being asked to apologize on behalf of Congress for their actions, and other representatives have stopped meeting with constituents altogether. It's obvious the talking points and memos being passed around Democratic offices aren't hitting home like the administration anticipated. And that is what will stop Obamacare, and most likely Cap & Trade.
If Congress worked under term limits, and assuming a majority of Democrats were in Congress, there would be no difficulty passing this legislation. Every member who is in Washington will have run on a platform stating their position for or against Obamacare, for or against Cap & Trade, for or against state sovereignty, for or against individual liberties. If a majority of the Congress were Democrats who ran on the platform of supporting Obamacare, it would pass without a single stumbling block. As would Cap & Trade, and as would any leftist agenda point. Under term limits, politicians would be elected for who they really are and how they really believe. A majority of Americans would have to believe in the same hopes and ideals their elected officials believe in. See, term limits set a ceiling on the amount of power and personal satisfaction an elected official can attain, so he has no incentive to not vote his constituent's thoughts.
But we don't live in that world. And that will save us (literally, and figuratively).
Without term limits, the goal of any member of Congress is to be reelected. What does it take to be reelected? Send enough money back to the district in the form of pork spending, come home and speak at the American Legion and the opening of the Little League season, visit a couple of high school football games, and just make sure that you keep your face in the news with enough good press to keep the election campaign funds coming in and the voters to turn out on Election Day. With the anger we have seen around the country from the Tax Day Tea Parties to the influx of listeners to conservative talk radio to the protesting of Congressmembers town hall meetings, its safe to say that most Representatives and Senators do not have enough good press. And this is before they even vote on these nation-changing bills. Knowing that their reelection is on the line, what will they do? They have no choice but to buck against their party, against their leaders, against their mentality of 'government knows best,' and against the President to vote against the passage of health care reform and Cap & Trade, among others. They must realize that with this much ground support in opposition to their views, they cannot risk voting the wrong way.
Because we don't have term limits, Obamacare will fail, solely do to the fact that a majority of politicians are spineless. And as funny as it sounds, that, is a good thing.
