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Article By: JoshSkandar
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Extendable Term Limits
There is a chronic problem with politics. It's the power of the incumbent. Once someone is elected to office, the chances of the candidate being unseated by a challenger decreases with each successful reelection. The consensus is, that this often leads to complacency, to laziness, and even to graft.
So an increasing number of states have instituted term limits: so many terms in office, and you can't stand for reelection. Recurrent efforts at instituting these limits at the Federal level have failed, with the exception of the Oval Office. After FDR, presidents have been limited to two terms.
Political observers, however, have noted these limits are not entirely a good thing. Edmund Burke pointed out that skillful governance is a trade, a profession even; there is much to learn about running government. It takes at least two years for most elected freshmen to learn even the basics of a job. To learn enough to move into a position of real effectiveness may take 10 years or more.
Louisiana is one of the states to have chosen to limit the years that elected officials may serve. This has caused a re-shuffling of anyone and everyone with long-term experience, and a lot of our hardest working representatives have lost elections, or have simply chosen to leave public service. So it appears that the only real experience left among the elected personnel, may be the UN-elected personnel, the bureaucrats and the hired representatives of special interest groups. Not exactly an improvement, that.
There is a second problem in the political landscape, however: left vs right, republican vs. democrat. It seems that everyone is trying so hard to win out over the other side, that no one is interested win-win solutions. Beating the opponent has become more important than serving the majority. In the nasty fighting over bragging rights, it seems that the cooperative American spirit has been completely lost.
Let me offer an idea that could address both problems: Extensible Limits. After the normal time of limited service, a candidate might be allowed to run again-- IF the body in which he/she has served concurs, (by private vote of course). Each re-election would become increasingly difficult; the first Extension might require a 50% vote, the next, an additional 3%, and a required 3% increase for each successive re-election.
For the chief officer, perhaps the House and the Senate would both have to grant permission.
This has some very positive outcomes. Backbiting is punished, cooperation is rewarded. Politicians have to decide if they want to play hardball and settle for a few quick wins and then leave; or if they wish to really work at governance, at collaboration, and at consensus-building. I suspect the best and the brightest will choose the latter.
The deadwood, the dirtballs, will find themselves limited to a very few terms. They will exert very little influence on the system, and quickly leave.
The elected officials who have the wisdom and the patience to build our country-- and our world-- will see their political strength increase rapidly. And all of them, the length of their service, and the height of their influence, will correlate directly with the effort, passion, and intelligence they bring to the job.
Article Source: ArticleZones.com
About the Author
Josh Skandar writes for booksXYZ.com, the non-profit bookstore listing over 3,000,000 books. His current recommendation is Inherit the Atchafalaya, a photographic and written introduction to the people and nature of Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin.
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