#9 INCUMBENCY = ARISTOCRACY

http://www.tenurecorrupts.com

The behavior of politicians, such as Congresspersons in particular, has always been the subject of much derision and cynicism, not just for years, but thruout history.

Yet we have not found any better way to run the political systems of our free societies than to tolerate the kinds of people who are not only willing to endure the grueling electoral process, but who also, having tasted the perks of office, are bound and determined to do everything they can to continue in office forever.

A short time ago, I started to become concerned about the fact that the reelection rates of incumbents of both parties has reached 99%.

My commonsense tells me that this is corrosive to the health of our representative democracy. I would venture that the thoughtful reader would agree.

The Founders had hoped to set up a framework in which “rotation in office” would tend to reduce the accumulation of arrogance, unseemly power, and corruption in public office. And on the whole, for almost 200 years, they were fairly successful.

However, in recent years things have changed. It seems that we are entering the era of ‘the aristocracy of incumbency’.

The latest facts are as follows (Cato Journal vol.14, no.3):

In the history of the US House of Representatives,

150 years ago, 60% of incumbents ran again, and 75% got reelected.

In the last 50 years, 93% of incumbents ran again, 90% won.

In 2004, 99% of incumbents who ran again won reelection !!!

If this trend persists thru a few more election cycles, it would seem that a successful incumbency is, in effect, a new aristocracy. Which is exactly what our American Revolution in 1776 was all about !

True, the difference is that, then, we needed a war to get rid of King George, whereas today we only need to vote the incumbents out.

So why isn’t ‘rotation in office’ working today ? It is a combination of many
factors which have created an inertia in the voting public which maintains the status quo in favor of incumbents in both parties.

In fairly close elections, this tends to allow a significant fraction of the public, who are really indifferent and uninvolved (and who will always exist), who vote on name recognition, or party lines, seldom on the issues or the character of the candidates, who enable incumbents to stay in office, regardless of merit.

That’s why we need a Congressional Term Limits Amendment (CTLA)
http://www.tenurecorrupts.com