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Should Term Limits be implemented for Congress?

Should Term Limits be implemented for Congress?

  • Yes

    Votes: 42 57.5%
  • No

    Votes: 25 34.2%
  • Other

    Votes: 6 8.2%

  • Total voters
    73

fredmertzz

DP Veteran
Joined
Jun 28, 2012
Messages
481
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Gender
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Political Leaning
Undisclosed
The only disadvantage that I could see is that the politicians who really are great wouldn't be able to stay there. But we would supposedly continue to elect more really great politicians.

The benefits are numerous. What are your thoughts?


And my plug: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/create-term-limits-congress/bm01vV2m sign the petition if you agree. Let's get Obama to submit an amendment. Or if he won't, let him explain why not. It's time to take the lobbyists out of Washington.

If this petition gets 150 signatures, it will go public. It needs 100,000 by 4/14/13. I'm an introvert. I don't know 150 people and I don't have facebook. If you believe in this cause, please sign it and share it.

If you don't believe in it, why not? Am I missing something?
 
no need
we have the right every two/six years to shake things up
and we do elect those politicians we deserve
 
no. outlaw gerrymandering nationwide instead. plug the census data into a computer, and let the software draw the districts. if we did this, districts would only change to reflect census data.
 
The only disadvantage that I could see is that the politicians who really are great wouldn't be able to stay there. But we would supposedly continue to elect more really great politicians.

The benefits are numerous. What are your thoughts?


And my plug: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/create-term-limits-congress/bm01vV2m sign the petition if you agree. Let's get Obama to submit an amendment. Or if he won't, let him explain why not. It's time to take the lobbyists out of Washington.

If this petition gets 150 signatures, it will go public. It needs 100,000 by 4/14/13. I'm an introvert. I don't know 150 people and I don't have facebook. If you believe in this cause, please sign it and share it.

If you don't believe in it, why not? Am I missing something?

No, I also believe the 22nd amendment should also be repealed. As soon as the president enters his second term, he is a lame duck. We, the people have the power to replace any member of the House every two years and every member of the senate ever 4 years. The fact we don't is on us. Congress as shown had only around a 10-15% approval rate, yet we sent 90% of them back. Who's fault is that? You get the government you deserve.
 
I think we do need term limits.

The overwhelming majority of Americans are dissatisfied with every single person in Washington, yet "we" continue to re-elect the same dim-bulb nitwits decade after decade after decade.

There's no need for career politicians and every reason to prevent just such a thing from happening.

I'm all for term limits.
 
no. outlaw gerrymandering nationwide instead. plug the census data into a computer, and let the software draw the districts. if we did this, districts would only change to reflect census data.

Oh yes, all gerrymandering is, is legally jury rigging elections way before the first vote is cast. This nation will never have fair elections as far as the house is concerned until the jury rigging of elections, gerrymandering of districts is done away with. I can never understand the worry over election fraud when jury rigging of elections is perfectly legal.
 
I think we do need term limits.

The overwhelming majority of Americans are dissatisfied with every single person in Washington, yet "we" continue to re-elect the same dim-bulb nitwits decade after decade after decade.

There's no need for career politicians and every reason to prevent just such a thing from happening.

I'm all for term limits.

The power to replace them lies with you.
 
The power to replace them lies with you.

It's not about the argument of whether or not we can or should replace specific politicians. It's about the overwhelming power and corruption that could and does occur behind the curtains without term limits. Is the cost worth the freedom?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
 
Sure. Let's limit them to zero terms.


That's about what they're worth.



Or better yet, let's make their salary contingent on NOT doing anything. Then things might finally get better.


You can tell I'm in a rather negative and cynical mood just the now...
 
It's not about the argument of whether or not we can or should replace specific politicians. It's about the overwhelming power and corruption that could and does occur behind the curtains without term limits. Is the cost worth the freedom?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
if we see indications of corruption it is then up to us, the voters, to vote them out of office
we do elect the politicians we deserve
 
The only disadvantage that I could see is that the politicians who really are great wouldn't be able to stay there. But we would supposedly continue to elect more really great politicians.

The benefits are numerous. What are your thoughts?


And my plug: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/create-term-limits-congress/bm01vV2m sign the petition if you agree. Let's get Obama to submit an amendment. Or if he won't, let him explain why not. It's time to take the lobbyists out of Washington.

If this petition gets 150 signatures, it will go public. It needs 100,000 by 4/14/13. I'm an introvert. I don't know 150 people and I don't have facebook. If you believe in this cause, please sign it and share it.

If you don't believe in it, why not? Am I missing something?

It appears that these "benefits" are so numerous that you listed exactly none of them. You also listed not specific term limits, or even included the petition text. Disadvantges that come to mind; 1) lame duck representatives are very apt to represent nobody but themselves, 2) if your representative is doing a good job then they are effectively fired for doing just that, 3) incumbents have an actual record to judge while challengers merely offer promises and 4) too many morons vote based only on party affiliation so challengers (winning the primary) in solid red/blue districts still recieve no real opposition anyway.
 
It's not about the argument of whether or not we can or should replace specific politicians. It's about the overwhelming power and corruption that could and does occur behind the curtains without term limits. Is the cost worth the freedom?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.


I agree with corruption of Washington. But at this point in time, the vast majority of Americans are perfectly alright with it. If the electorate really cared about the corruption, they would vote them out and do something about it. This is what happens in the last days of a democracy. Would term limits stop the corruption, I don't think so. It just means those who want influence and are corrupting government now, would just start buying their politicians earlier.
 
if we see indications of corruption it is then up to us, the voters, to vote them out of office
we do elect the politicians we deserve

In October of 2012, Congress approval rating was 21%. Incumbent re election rate topped 90%.

There is an extreme disconnect between what the people want and what the people get. There are numerous variables as to why this could be, but in the end, I concede you are right. We get what we vote for and the people have the power to change that. But for whatever reason, it seems the 21% of people approving are 90%+ of the voters. The lack of voter turn-out is disturbing.

The law shouldn't be necessary ideally, but it will give a greater chance for the will of the people to succeed, rather than the will of the 21%.
 
Term Limits are a dead issue thanks to the SCOTUS. We can go on all day about how necessary they are, or not, but the SCOTUS has said they won't be allowed.
 
The internet is a funny tool. To someone who actually wants to change things it has powerful potential.

However, if your just a lazy complainer it allows one to feel like they are a concerned active citizen by forwarding meaningless spam or complaining.
 
The only disadvantage that I could see is that the politicians who really are great wouldn't be able to stay there. But we would supposedly continue to elect more really great politicians.

The benefits are numerous. What are your thoughts?


And my plug: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/create-term-limits-congress/bm01vV2m sign the petition if you agree. Let's get Obama to submit an amendment. Or if he won't, let him explain why not. It's time to take the lobbyists out of Washington.

If this petition gets 150 signatures, it will go public. It needs 100,000 by 4/14/13. I'm an introvert. I don't know 150 people and I don't have facebook. If you believe in this cause, please sign it and share it.

If you don't believe in it, why not? Am I missing something?

Tempting. Very tempting. But - no. The corrupt and the incompetent will be replaced by others just like them - but hungrier. And those rare individuals who manage to stay clean and speak their mind (Ron Paul is the obvious example; if you are a socialist, you would name Bernie Sanders...) - and get re-elected on the virtue of their demonstrated integrity (and scandalous celebrity of not marching in lockstep with their herds) - they would be gone...
 
Tempting. Very tempting. But - no. The corrupt and the incompetent will be replaced by others just like them - but hungrier. And those rare individuals who manage to stay clean and speak their mind (Ron Paul is the obvious example; if you are a socialist, you would name Bernie Sanders...) - and get re-elected on the virtue of their demonstrated integrity (and scandalous celebrity of not marching in lockstep with their herds) - they would be gone...

Ron Paul is a career politician who's district gets huge piles of government money.

His son rand is a carpet bagger who will do the same.
 
if we see indications of corruption it is then up to us, the voters, to vote them out of office
we do elect the politicians we deserve


Bubba, part of the problem is that Senators or reps from other states, that I do not get to vote for or against, can stay in office for decades and accumulate seniority power, giving them a disproportionate amount of power over things that directly affect me and my life, and I can't do anything about them.

Term limits would mitigate that to some degree.
 
Term Limits are a dead issue thanks to the SCOTUS. We can go on all day about how necessary they are, or not, but the SCOTUS has said they won't be allowed.


I must have missed this. Link?
 
I don't think they deserve term limits, but I also don't think the POTUS should have one either.

Seems silly to kick out someone you like because of some arbitrary rule. Without term limits, we'd never have either Bush (Reagan would have a 3rd, and no way in hell would America vote Dubya over Clinton for a 3rd).

Prosecution rests.
 
The only disadvantage that I could see is that the politicians who really are great wouldn't be able to stay there. But we would supposedly continue to elect more really great politicians.

The benefits are numerous. What are your thoughts?


And my plug: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/create-term-limits-congress/bm01vV2m sign the petition if you agree. Let's get Obama to submit an amendment. Or if he won't, let him explain why not. It's time to take the lobbyists out of Washington.

If this petition gets 150 signatures, it will go public. It needs 100,000 by 4/14/13. I'm an introvert. I don't know 150 people and I don't have facebook. If you believe in this cause, please sign it and share it.

If you don't believe in it, why not? Am I missing something?

Term limits should not be implemented.

Age limits should.

We do not need politicians making policy on developments that they are too old to understand, especially at the rate in which developments now occur.

We don't need decrepit politicians voting however their staff tells them to.

Age limits are a good alternative, as it allows professional politicians to develop the skills, experience, and knowledge necessary to form policy in a modern society without kicking them out just because they wanted to serve the people their life.
 
The only disadvantage that I could see is that the politicians who really are great wouldn't be able to stay there. But we would supposedly continue to elect more really great politicians.

The benefits are numerous. What are your thoughts?


And my plug: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/create-term-limits-congress/bm01vV2m sign the petition if you agree. Let's get Obama to submit an amendment. Or if he won't, let him explain why not. It's time to take the lobbyists out of Washington.

If this petition gets 150 signatures, it will go public. It needs 100,000 by 4/14/13. I'm an introvert. I don't know 150 people and I don't have facebook. If you believe in this cause, please sign it and share it.

If you don't believe in it, why not? Am I missing something?

I don't like limiting the options voters may have. However I do think its incumbents have an unfair advantage. Not 100% how to level the field. The closest I've come up with is requiring candidates to give half of their contributions to a public finance fund that gets shared with all candidates, free time for political ads on TV and radio for everybody running, put superpacs under the same rules as regular campaigns and ban corporate, lobby and union contributions.

I am supportive of term limiting the congressional seniority system however.
 
It appears that these "benefits" are so numerous that you listed exactly none of them. You also listed not specific term limits, or even included the petition text. Disadvantges that come to mind; 1) lame duck representatives are very apt to represent nobody but themselves, 2) if your representative is doing a good job then they are effectively fired for doing just that, 3) incumbents have an actual record to judge while challengers merely offer promises and 4) too many morons vote based only on party affiliation so challengers (winning the primary) in solid red/blue districts still recieve no real opposition anyway.

Thoughtful reasons. Thanks. For text of the petition and the reasons for term limits are contained in the link, which is provided. The intent is to get people to the page to sign. If I give you the information, your incentive to click is decreased. You may obviously choose not to do so anyway.

in response:

1) I'm not so cynical to believe this. The sacrifice to become a politician would be significant if a career could not be made of it. The intentions would be more pure than you suggest, I believe.

2) It is not a career from which you get fired. It is a service, this is why it is a sacrifice.

3) This is a legitimate concern. However, it seems that 79% of people were against the incumbents records in 2012 (Congress had a 21% approval rating) and yet 90%+ of incumbents were re-elected. Judging their record negatively does not correlate with re-election chances.

4) The point isn't to switch districts more rapidly between red & blue. It's to end corruption of specific individuals - to end the temptation of lobbyists, money and power and to keep the government moving at the same pace as the people.
 
I use to believe: "The voters are the term limits." It may have been true at one time, but I no longer hold that belief.
 
There should be no term limits. We have never had term limits though we have to and were perfectly fine. The voters decide if they don't like your government they will just vote you and your members out like they did with Mulroney.
 
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