Maybe we just need to fire all incumbents.

[dkf]

Even if they are good people they have bad habits learned in a dysfunctional environment.

We need people with fresh eyes and no hard feelings.

[Broderick]

1. Never had a problem with the idea

of term limits. Something happens to politicians when they get to DC. Something in the water methinks.

[ellisonz]

31. Ehh...

...they just shuffle around more. That's how it's played out in CA.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. That's the attitude that got us the Tea Party freshmen in The House.

[undeterred]

12. And they are some of the dumbest people ever elected to office.

[emulatorloo]

20. + 1000

[baldguy]

3. If Snidely Whiplash convinces a few supporters of his opponent, Tess Trueheart

that she's just as slimy & corrupt as he is, then he wins.

Every time.

[zbdent]

4. Funny how the TPers were screaming this last year before the elections ...

and now that their guys are in, nary a peep ...

[Old and In the Way]

7. I remember when Sue Collins, our Maine Senator promised only 2 terms.

She's working on her 3rd now.

[zbdent]

10. I remember a bunch of Repugs who pledged to serve only 2 terms in the 90s

and they're still in office, running repeatedly without the hint of hypocrisy ...

[Old and In the Way]

5. No, I want to reward those that work for my interests.

I'll use my vote in the primary or GE to reaffirm that. I've always thought that the winners of this "fire them all through term limits" is the people who staff these offices - the ones we don't elect.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. Laws need to be passed which make lobbying illegal and prohibit former govt employees from

occupying lobbying positions under threat of prison. (30 years of prison sounds pretty damned good).

[Old and In the Way]

Agreed...combined with publicly financed elections, we might finally fix our

dysfunctional "government of the people".

[bighart]

14. The only way to impose either of these ideas is to vote out the current crop

Why would they want to pass laws that would end up taking money out of their own pockets?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

17. EXACTLY! Cut the legs off corporations (lobbying, financing elections)

Corporations are not citizens and shouldn't be allowed to run our country.

[Gold Metal Flake]

9. "Duuuuh, TL/DR, derp."

"Ah can only unnerstand two words atta time. TERM LIMITS!!!!1 Derp." </teabagger>

[RC]

13. When you write or call your representative , you are lobbying.

Which former government employes? The clerks that work in the County offices for $40,000 a year
You need to thing this through a bit more.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

18. I should've said professional lobbying. Well, if professional lobbying were made illegal

No one would be a professional lobbyist, so you wouldn't have to worry about people becoming a professional lobbyist.

Lobbying needs to become history in the U.S.

However, I have nothing against public, published letters. Person X writes a letter to Congressman Y, and it gets published on a website. That would be lovely. :)

[Obamanaut]

We have such an opportunity on a regular basis, but won't do it. Incumbents are

retained at about a 90% rate (when they seek reelection), and they know it, so they don't really care what we think or what the approval rating shows.

We vote for "the name you know." The incumbents know this, and they feel secure.

[Zorra]

8. That will only be effective if we first take the private money out of campaign

financing and government completely through a comprehensive constitutional amendment.

Otherwise, we'll get the same bribed, corrupted leaders we have now back again.

[bluestateguy]

11. We need term limits

I know the mantra is that we have elections and that term limits are an affront to democracy, but let's get real here. Elections don't work. The same dinosaurs keep getting voted back in, which only multiplies the arrogance and elitism that permeates the capitol. This sense of "I can't be touched I can't be beaten. Go ahead and try HA! HA! HA!"

Term limits would cut Washington egos down to size and force career politicians to go home.

[Johnson20]

15. I couldn't agree more. Congress is

broken and this might go a long way to fix it. Likewise the wealth of Congressional members (49% millionaires) needs to be addressed.

[loyalsister]

26. Term limits have been disastrous in MO

The only people who know what they are doing are staff and lobbyists. The legislators are just there for a line on their resume. Many of them have been moving into professional lobbying, consultants, and public policy positions with private organizations and some non profits. They have their eyes on another position from the start and have no interest in getting good at the job they are doing. They start out clueless and leave the same way. The tea party is a good example of what MO looked like when term limits were implemented.
We have term limits- elections.

[NYC Liberal]

27. Term limits mean career bureaucrats and lobbyists will run the show

even more than they do now. The elected officials will be in and out every few years, but the unelected behind-the-scenes people will stay for years. They will have the power.

You see this right now with all the people Bush installed all over the executive branch - in the DOD, DOJ, etc. - who are still there and can't be simply fired because the new president wants his own people.

Edit: I'm not saying there aren't good arguments for term limits, but a better solution is to fix the problems with elections; namely, corporate and special-interest influence.

[Warpy]

16. Unfortunately, they'll have some staff around

to show them the ropes, staff who have been around for years of dysfunction.

Some of them are worth keeping. Most are not.

Let's just hope the teabaggers are gone. They've been worse than useless.

[Old and In the Way]

24. Term limits will assure that the staff become the real power brokers in Congress.

And that's where corporate money would flow to. The staff become the institution and they'll have the influence without the voter accountability. It really would be worse then the present system. The voter has the term limiting capability built in. The fact that many choose not to use it or vote for the incumbent is not the institution's problem. If my Congress person is doing the job, I want him to stay. I already vote against the ones I want to see gone. The problem isn't with terms, it's with voters who vote against their best interests. Term limits, along with Citizen's United, will only make the progressive agenda more difficult to enact.

[Warpy]

25. No kidding and I'm not aware of strict bribery laws concerning staff members

I'm completely against the idea of term limits and for the reason you cited.

[dkf]

28. Wait wait wait. How do corps get at the staff?

[CreekDog]

30. because they lobbyists stay, the staff stays --it's the congress people that come and go

who are the long timers that have the longest relationships, staff and lobbyists in this case.

not only that, there are legislative experts who are congresspeople...not saying it's great now, but imagine a congress full of people that know less...even more reliant on their staff who are more connected to lobbyists.

sort of a power dynamic.

this happened in California after term limits forced a lot of legislative experts out. the staff suddenly were the people that knew the most.

[cloudbase]

19. Get rid of the seniority system,

and make committee assignments by lottery, changing with every congress.

[Pab Sungenis]

21. Yeah, I agree.

Primary every incumbent Democrat and vote down every incumbent Republican. Pure clean slate.

Too bad it won't happen.

[CreekDog]

22. Smooth

:rofl:

[Morning Dew]

23. +1

It would be funnier if it wasn't sad.

[bigwillq]

29. I did that this past election

Voted against all incumbents. I don't think most folks deserve to keep their jobs.

Seriously considering doing that in 2012, too.

[NNN0LHI]

32. Wasn't that tried in Wisconsin and Ohio last election?