Ring of Fire: Could Term Limits Help Destroy Citizens’ United?

[GoLeft TV]

Power in Congress has been concentrated into the hands of a few well-connected Senators and Representatives. The only concerns they have are winning the next election, and how they can repay their corporate donors. This is the exact problem that James Madison warned us about in The Federalist Papers, and the only way to really tackle this problem is with Congressional term limits.

Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.

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1. lol! what a naive concept! as if money would cease to have any influence on politicians

because we all know that lame ducks instantly become both powerful enough to drive legislation and saintly enough to eschew money and its influence. they certainly don't give a moment's thought to where they'll land once they reach the end of their term.

[KJG52]

3. Exactly!

[KJG52]

2. Stupidest Idea Ever...

The term limit is to politics as the Just Say No campaign is to drug addiction, a ridiculous non-answer to a serious problem that demands a real solution based on personal involvement and responsible stewardship. Living in California and having direct experience with term limited politicians I can tell you that the only effect of term limits is to concentrate power in the Party structure and staff personnel. Lobbyists become even more powerful in government because they are the only experienced people with institutional memory and continuing power. Term limits are the Libertarian's wet dream, making government less responsive and at the same time less transparent, while punishing experience and dedication.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

4. Just recently, I saw a candidate criticized for not knowing term limits

were, apparently, unconstitutional. Now I didn't know they were either, or exactly how they are, but if they are, the whole idea might be moot, since I don't see politicians lining up to create a constitutional amendment to allow them.

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6. i didn't know this. i thought any state could impose term limits on its own congresscritters.

of course, you would need a constitutional amendment to impose this on all 50 states whether their state agreed or not, though.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. It might be only at the federal level for all I know.

As I said, I didn't know it either when whatever pundit brought it up.

[brooklynite]

5. If you could change the Constitution to allow Term Limits...

...I suspect you could change the Constitution to overturn Citizen's United.