Term limits for Senators n Congressmen, thus removing the career politician who is not accountable to his constituents. It would be the greatest thing we could ever do in America. It will never happen, but it would be great. That, and a fair tax, are my political wet dreams

10/3/2007 12:02:11 AM

yeah, the GOP promised "Term Limits" and "Campaign Finance Reform" in their so-called Contract With America that they made foundational to their 1994 Congressional takeover, both of which got pushed completely off the table by halfway through that first session.

(FTR, campaign finance was finally reformed in 2000 with a bipartisan effort -- but to hear Gingrich cry about it lately ,you'd think McCain and Feingold were serving him divorce papers on his cancer deathbed.)

....

what?




[Edited on October 3, 2007 at 12:35 AM. Reason : ]

10/3/2007 12:34:38 AM

Quote :

"It will never happen"

10/3/2007 12:36:27 AM

didn't know it was broken

10/3/2007 12:49:52 AM

oh, its broken...trust me

[Edited on October 3, 2007 at 2:04 AM. Reason : .]

10/3/2007 2:04:12 AM

I hate it when people say "trust me," like they're someone to be trusted.

10/3/2007 2:05:32 AM

im trustworthy, dont question my integrity bee-atch

10/3/2007 2:11:22 AM

Quote :

"Term limits for Senators n Congressmen"

I agree

for that matter, 8 years is too much of ANY president

instead, I think they should be able to serve as many non-consecutive terms as they wish

Quote :

"How To Fix Our Gov'Ment"

keep the 2 party congressional system

but scrap the 2 party electoral system

(most "3rd party" proponents and opponents don't make this distinction)

10/3/2007 5:39:02 AM

My coworker has stated in many political discussions we get in to that this country would gain a ton by always voting the incumbent out, no matter how good a job he did.

10/3/2007 8:04:57 AM

How to fix our government:

-Vote out every incumbent every chance you get
-Elect state legislators that are willing to pass constitutional amendments at the state level (bypassing Congress) to devolve federal powers, this needs to happen in at least 38 states
-Put partisan hacks of both parties on an island in the middle of the South Pacific and let them kill each other, the world would be a better place if they were all dead

10/3/2007 8:28:12 AM

anarcy11111

10/3/2007 8:46:42 AM

multiparty system

10/3/2007 11:38:05 AM

^^^all that would do would be to make all the congressmen from your district/state be freshmen and thus powerless.

two-term limits would make half of congress not accountable to their electorate at any given time. i think public campaigns and a more multi-party friendly gov't would be a more positive change than term limits.

[Edited on October 3, 2007 at 1:32 PM. Reason : .]

10/3/2007 1:31:53 PM

the freshmen part wouldn't matter if half were always freshmen and the other half were only on their second term, but it does present an interesting dichotomy of the powerless and the unaccountable. gg

10/3/2007 2:05:39 PM

but thats like suggesting the best way to run a business is to hire people right out of college, let them work for a few years, and get rid of them...fire people at age 30...lets just go full fledged logan's run and kill everyone at age 30 or whatever


"I'm finally getting the hang of this job!"
"You're fired"

10/3/2007 2:08:08 PM

^^well, i was responding more to his suggestion to always vote out the incumbents. i mean it sounds kinda good at first. but when you think about it, you'd always be voting for a guy who won't have much power at all.

[Edited on October 3, 2007 at 2:10 PM. Reason : .]

10/3/2007 2:09:58 PM

or much experience at all...which in politics isnt always a bad thing...but it isnt necessarily a good thing either

10/3/2007 2:10:50 PM

right. there are definitely some people in congress who really know what they're talking about with regards to lawmaking/defense/diplomacy.

10/3/2007 2:11:41 PM

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

10/3/2007 2:14:32 PM

how about voters just not sucking. i'd rather hear someone say "i didn't have time to become educated on the issues this year, so i didn't vote" than, "his name sounds nice"

thats why i'll go vote, but abstain from voting for any person who I can't find information on (usually local elected positions).

10/3/2007 2:20:19 PM

a good first step is to outlaw straight party voting

second step is to oulaw party affiliation on the ballot

10/3/2007 2:24:30 PM

Quote :

"thats why i'll go vote, but abstain from voting for any person who I can't find information on (usually local elected positions)."

wow. you must not try very hard. every paper (and related website) usually runs long sections in the weeks leading up to elections about all the candidates (eg the elections next tuesday).

10/3/2007 2:32:15 PM

Quote :

"oulaw party affiliation"

Godwin's Law!!!!1

10/3/2007 2:44:29 PM

Quote :

"-Put partisan hacks of both parties on an island in the middle of the South Pacific and let them kill each other, the world would be a better place if they were all dead"

yup

10/3/2007 2:47:53 PM

Quote :

"wow. you must not try very hard. every paper (and related website) usually runs long sections in the weeks leading up to elections about all the candidates (eg the elections next tuesday)."

Yeah, but try finding a substantial amount of information on the Wake County Water Commissioner or the Register of Deeds. I'm talking about those kinds of positions. I'm more than willing to accept the fact that my ignorance in hydrology makes me a poor selector of someone whose job is to preserve the county's water. Nice attempt at calling me out though.

10/3/2007 2:51:44 PM

maybe you should have been more specific. it just seemed like the typical dismissal of local politics i see on here.

[Edited on October 3, 2007 at 2:56 PM. Reason : .]

10/3/2007 2:56:15 PM

Troo, my bad. I agree that local politics doesn't get the attention it deserves. It isn't as sexy as national politics, but it effects us far more on a daily basis.

10/3/2007 3:36:18 PM

term limits mean that there is more lobbyist and staffer control. Completely opposite of what you want to accomplish.

10/3/2007 3:41:14 PM

OK, here is a question, if we mostly agree in here that TLs are bad, why do we have them for the President? The best two answers I can come up with are a) the precident set by Geo. Washington b) the desire to avoid an overly powerful executive.

10/3/2007 3:55:22 PM

that, and the 22nd Amendment

10/3/2007 4:23:16 PM

well, right, I know that . . . I was asking why it was considered acceptable along the lines of this discussion, not why it was constitutionally mandated.

10/3/2007 4:44:33 PM

So we do not have president's becoming "for life" heads of state through a "fair" election. Kinda like how Saddam always received the "popular" vote in Iraq's "elections." If bush were allowed to run again then who knows maybe he'll squeak out another victory which came down a close race in swing states where people say Jeb Bush are in control and can "influence" the way balloting is conducted.

Although I do not support term limits for senators and congressmen; I do strongly support term limits for the president. We wouldn't want any president becoming too powerful and putting a strong hand into continually getting re-elected.

[Edited on October 3, 2007 at 4:51 PM. Reason : l]

10/3/2007 4:50:02 PM

If Bush isn't able to influence the votes in a swing state, the swing state should AT LEAST count the military absentee ballots

10/3/2007 5:00:44 PM

Absentee ballots don't get counted unless the margin of victory in the general election is less than the total number of absentee ballots.

For example, if A defeats B by 10 votes, and there are only 9 absentee ballots, then they will not be counted.

10/3/2007 5:11:53 PM

I just recall in the 2000 elections, all the Gore voters were complaining about the chads and Jeb Bush, and all the Bush voters were complaining about them not counting the military absentee ballots

10/3/2007 5:13:00 PM

1 term, 6 years only for the POTUS

2 terms, 6 years each for senate

4 terms, 2 years each for house reps

10/3/2007 8:37:43 PM

ridiculous idea, because then you still have a guy being in the senate and house for a combined 20 years. Right now people don't switch because there's no reason to. Under that system, though, people would switch, and it doesn't solve the problem of the career politician. I'd be more inclined to implement a term limit scenario that looked at candidates from the perspective of "no more than x years in the federal legislative branch." It would also need to deal w/ state-held elected offices, such as pro-rating federal years based on state years, as well as handling appointed offices (as in, cabinet positions et al.).

10/3/2007 8:46:25 PM

MAKE GOVERNMENT LIKE JURY DUTY


hahahaha

10/3/2007 8:50:45 PM