Ten Democrats joined with House Republicans on Thursday to censure Rep. Al Green for his protest during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress this week — a formal condemnation of the Texas Democrat’s actions.
Term limits are an antidemocratic solution to an antidemocratic problem - the problem isn’t incumbent people, which the voters select, it’s incumbent corporate interests, which the voters don’t select.
Term limits for the legislature would create a revolving door of corporate shills. It takes a couple terms for a legislator to become skilled at the process and learn to make progress on their agenda - and to build a backbone to their donors.
Ultimately, everything people think would be solved by term limits would actually be solved by eliminating money from politics. We need to greatly diminish the incumbency advantage, which is fueled by money in politics, to give us legislators who have to be accountable to the voters instead of donors.
I think it would at least return us to how it was before Citizens United, with some amount of constraint on political donations. But I think more is needed to reach the intended effect.
Term limits are an antidemocratic solution to an antidemocratic problem - the problem isn’t incumbent people, which the voters select, it’s incumbent corporate interests, which the voters don’t select.
Term limits for the legislature would create a revolving door of corporate shills. It takes a couple terms for a legislator to become skilled at the process and learn to make progress on their agenda - and to build a backbone to their donors.
Ultimately, everything people think would be solved by term limits would actually be solved by eliminating money from politics. We need to greatly diminish the incumbency advantage, which is fueled by money in politics, to give us legislators who have to be accountable to the voters instead of donors.
This is an interesting point. Would revoking citizens united solve this the same way?
I still think term limits could help get new perspectives into politics.
I think it would at least return us to how it was before Citizens United, with some amount of constraint on political donations. But I think more is needed to reach the intended effect.