I don't know. I find it more troubling to be reminded that there are these memos giving detailed instructions to individual members of the legislature on how to present their political stance, on basically what issues to concern themselves with. (And I'm sure the Democratic Party is the same.) No wonder everyone in a political party is in such lockstep on the issues.
The answer has always been term limits...you can go against the grain when you're not running for reelection. I'd say 12 years max is more than enough for anyone I mean half of Congress remembers Truman's address to the nation in 45...we need more young blood in there, more representation of the current demographics.
There are benefits and cons to term limits like there are benefits and cons to life time appointments. The cons of short term limits is the revolving door situation where politicians use there 4-12 years of legislative service to create lobbyists connections for promised board seats after they leave office which makes them beholden to those corporations rather than their constituents when they serve. A life time service would refrain politicans from seeking out board member postions in large companies but the con is they aren't held as accountable. Maybe make a streamlined impeachment process that makes it easy for them to be removed? Also you need to give them a really good salary so they have less insentive to grift.
That happens all the time within the current system, I still don't see the benefit to the American people by having career politicians in Congress. If term limits were hypothetically in place during the impeachment trial I believe we wouldn't be watching this shitshow right now.
I understand the allure for term limits, but I've never been a fan. Do you think Nancy Pelosi (yay), Mitch McConell (boo), or any of the long-timers knew what they were doing when they were first elected? A career politician is someone who believes in civil service, has learned the craft of governance, understands how to get things done, and does it for the good of humanity. The Tea Party fiasco is a good example of what can happen when a bunch of no-nothing yahoos come in and wreck the joint with their lack of desire to serve all of the citizenry.
Competence isn't the only concern in governance and legislation. Grifting is also a concern. Competent people can also grift. In fact competent people are more efficient in grifting. Look at Pelosi and her insider trading schemes with Visa.
I don't disagree, integrity is a key ingredient. If a politician is crooked they should be voted out. Term limits or not. That doesn't negate the need for seasoned legislators.
