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Why Progressives Should Work at Eliminating Term Limits
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Thought Provocation by Jeph Johnson
I've always broken from the pack on the subject of term limits. I think that a politician's term should definitely need to be challenged but if they are doing a good job AND IF MONEY WAS OUT OF POLITICS then what's wrong with Obama having a 3rd term or whatnot? We always try to do the wrong solutions to the underlying problem. Same with raising the minimum wage. That's not a good solution unless the MAXIMUM WAGE is also capped.
Supposedly we have term limits to keep politicians from being "career politicians" and this supposedly is eliminated by term limits. I call foul. I think if a politician was accountable to the people every 2/4 years and they do well we should continue to vote them in. If a politician is susceptible to bribery or lobbying from corporate money, then all this does is elevate the funds getting filtered in - and if a president or congress person is serving their final term what incentive do they have for doing things for the people? I would argue the ONLY incentive they have is to follow whatever lobby group bribes them with their money. So hatred of politicians and the shitty job they do is actually a reason to eliminate term limits and make them accountable to the people not the big money.
Obama Would Not Have Won
Trump would not be so loud about cheating at the polls if he had not been reassured that the gerrymandered districts would give him the election by nullifying the votes of those who were for someone else. Term limits: for senators and representatives would be good too. Putting a cap on wages would be seen as unamerican. The CEO's would get rid of any politician who tried - as would large corporate interests. Ethically, no big money in politics would be ideal, but realistically, you can't get a foot in the door without big sponsors and big sponsors when you win means debts to pay. It's human. It's exploitive and wrong, but it is. - slc