www.tenurecorrupts.com
To paraphrase Lord Acton: Incumbency tends to corrupt, and continued incumbency tends to corrupt continuously. However.....
After being a Term Limits fanatic for some time, I have had some second thoughts, as follows:
Term Limits has a dark side, which I have not heard mentioned by anyone, to wit: Given the perverse aspects of human nature, it should be expected that some number of term limited 'lame duck' Congressmen of both houses, and both parties, will, in their final terms, vote for special interest legislation against the best interests of the country, and the will of the voters, in order to assure his/her own future financial well-being after they leave office. Is there any way to counter this very natural tendency? Not very likely, so I submit an equally unlikely alternative:
Perhaps better ways (than term limits) to avoid the abuses of entrenched power, and to improve the quality of Congressional performance would include such ideas as:
a. Prohibiting the use of seniority as a means of awarding any chairmanships.
b. Limit subchairs to two years, and fullchairs to six years
c. Or rotate chairs
d. End the power of chairs to bury bills in committee
e. End the use of seniority in all assignments. ( 'How' is the problem)
f. and so forth. I'm sure there are many other good ideas out there
And last, but not least, these changes should be accomplished expeditiously by Congress itself, in both houses, not by Constitutional amendments, and the changes should be protected from easy tampering in future Congresses by including a requirement for a two thirds vote of both houses for any changes. If, due to parliamentary maneuvering, this protection is not practical, then it may be necessary to resort to a constitutional amendment for congressional administrative reform.
Again, given the less than idealistic tendencies of human nature, especially in the 'old bulls', it would take a drive of truly historic proportions to get changes like these passed, but I'd bet that if we got a lot more freshmen in the next Congress, it would truly be possible, since freshmen would have the most to gain.
Who in Congress (or out of it) could best get this ball rolling? It could be a great campaign plank for aspiring new candidates and/or reelection candidates.
Of course, we have to somehow guard against the law of unintended consequences whenever we fix a problem. And the great weakness of the idea is that Congress could undo it with a simple vote.
www.tenurecorrupts.com
4/23/2005
#14 FREEDOM IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY
www.tenurecorrupts.com
John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers and our second president, once said :
'Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.'
The ominous note that John Adams sounded so long ago may appear to have been unnecessarily gloomy, but it may have been vague only in its lack of specific timing. There are now innumerable signs that what he warned about is slowly but inexorably coming to pass.
For example:
A prime example is the direct consequence of the growth of government for the well intentioned purpose of 'protecting the environment'. Presumably because this is such a huge job, Congress created the EPA, and then delegated to this unelected bureaucracy the job of creating laws, usually based on fake science, pushed by fanatical activists, which limit the freedom of citizens to go about their daily lives unencumbered by irresponsible government.
Another example is the fact, that because this is a free country with free speech, any nut, or group af nuts, has the liberty to hound and harass Congress (with the threat of defeating incumbents at the next election) to pass laws which the great unorganized mass of citizens would not agree to if asked. Sometimes these laws are of such importance that the otherwise silent majority gets its dander up and lets Congress know its opposition, but often Congress sneaks the item into a bill without anyone knowing, except the extremists who scared them.
In order to keep a country free, it necessary for its citizens to pay the price of vigilance, by devising and maintaining a constant drumbeat of freedom, to counteract those who dream up false 'crises' which 'require' the passage of ever more laws restricting our freedoms in both subtle and outrageous ways.
Why do I say that 'freedom is its own worst enemy' ?
Because it is the nature of things that, while the vast majority of people are very content to live in peace and freedom, working hard, valuing industriousness, honesty, and integrity, pursuing their particular version of happiness, there always exists a small but significant fraction of the population who, for either strong ideological or predatory reasons, are determined to force their less aggressive fellow humans to live the way they think the people should live, and parasitically living off the people, and despotically running their lives 'for the public good'. And to compound the problem, there is another significant fraction of the public who support this predatory group because they want the subsidies that are promised, rather than work to support themselves.
It is in a free society that people get to freely vote for their 'governors'. But, it is in a free society, in the elections process, where the opportunistic, often duplicitous, disingenuous, and sometimes downright criminal types of people go to make their careers in politics. It is in politics where you can get reelected over and over again as long as you promise to give the people more 'goodies', and make it tougher for opponents to unseat you. It is in politics where you can vote for your own raises, and make the proper connections, doing subtle give and take, to become wealthy without working as hard as an entrepreneur.
Of course , I 'm not saying that all who go into politics are crooked. But I am saying that even the best people, given enough years in the often dirty business of 'you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours' will emerge considerably less than ennobled - an obvious argument for term limits.
By the way, what is this talk about a 'free' society? Not only are we losing our various freedoms (to drill for oil, to smoke, to drive powerful cars, etc), but we are being forced to pay higher and higher taxes for the 'privilege' of having less and less freedom.
I’m Nelson Lee Walker and I believe we need Congressional Term Limits.
www.tenurecorrupts.com
John Adams, one of our Founding Fathers and our second president, once said :
'Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.'
The ominous note that John Adams sounded so long ago may appear to have been unnecessarily gloomy, but it may have been vague only in its lack of specific timing. There are now innumerable signs that what he warned about is slowly but inexorably coming to pass.
For example:
A prime example is the direct consequence of the growth of government for the well intentioned purpose of 'protecting the environment'. Presumably because this is such a huge job, Congress created the EPA, and then delegated to this unelected bureaucracy the job of creating laws, usually based on fake science, pushed by fanatical activists, which limit the freedom of citizens to go about their daily lives unencumbered by irresponsible government.
Another example is the fact, that because this is a free country with free speech, any nut, or group af nuts, has the liberty to hound and harass Congress (with the threat of defeating incumbents at the next election) to pass laws which the great unorganized mass of citizens would not agree to if asked. Sometimes these laws are of such importance that the otherwise silent majority gets its dander up and lets Congress know its opposition, but often Congress sneaks the item into a bill without anyone knowing, except the extremists who scared them.
In order to keep a country free, it necessary for its citizens to pay the price of vigilance, by devising and maintaining a constant drumbeat of freedom, to counteract those who dream up false 'crises' which 'require' the passage of ever more laws restricting our freedoms in both subtle and outrageous ways.
Why do I say that 'freedom is its own worst enemy' ?
Because it is the nature of things that, while the vast majority of people are very content to live in peace and freedom, working hard, valuing industriousness, honesty, and integrity, pursuing their particular version of happiness, there always exists a small but significant fraction of the population who, for either strong ideological or predatory reasons, are determined to force their less aggressive fellow humans to live the way they think the people should live, and parasitically living off the people, and despotically running their lives 'for the public good'. And to compound the problem, there is another significant fraction of the public who support this predatory group because they want the subsidies that are promised, rather than work to support themselves.
It is in a free society that people get to freely vote for their 'governors'. But, it is in a free society, in the elections process, where the opportunistic, often duplicitous, disingenuous, and sometimes downright criminal types of people go to make their careers in politics. It is in politics where you can get reelected over and over again as long as you promise to give the people more 'goodies', and make it tougher for opponents to unseat you. It is in politics where you can vote for your own raises, and make the proper connections, doing subtle give and take, to become wealthy without working as hard as an entrepreneur.
Of course , I 'm not saying that all who go into politics are crooked. But I am saying that even the best people, given enough years in the often dirty business of 'you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours' will emerge considerably less than ennobled - an obvious argument for term limits.
By the way, what is this talk about a 'free' society? Not only are we losing our various freedoms (to drill for oil, to smoke, to drive powerful cars, etc), but we are being forced to pay higher and higher taxes for the 'privilege' of having less and less freedom.
I’m Nelson Lee Walker and I believe we need Congressional Term Limits.
www.tenurecorrupts.com
4/02/2005
#13 TERM LIMITS vs JUDGES
www.tenurecorrupts.com
One of the latest political furors is about the judiciary overreaching
and legislating from the bench. I believe that my pet concern about
Congressional Term Limits (www.tenurecorrupts.com) may provide
a solution to fix the runaway judiciary.
One of the problems with our wonderful American representative
republic/democracy is that in many parts of the government we
are suffering from a disease brought on by age and ‘tenure’. You
could call it ‘hardening of the arteries’.
When individuals in government (or any other pursuit!) occupy one
job or office for too long, they naturally become less effective at
that job. They begin to lose the energy, enthusiasm, and imagination
required to perform that job well. But they do learn how to best hold
on to the job, whether they are doing well or not, by ‘gaming’ the system.
And there is a significant tendency for such ‘used up’ politicians to
maintain the status quo, not only in their own situation, but in similar
situations thruout the government. Thus, even though the Judiciary
appears to be stealing Congressional responsibilities, the pols consider
this theft to be a way of shedding political ‘blame’ by avoiding tough
legislative choices and therefore favorable to their reelection chances.
In other words, "Let the judges do it!"
Term Limits would tend to bring in new congresspeople who would
have a fresh point-of-view, and be aware that the Judiciary was
behaving unconstitutionally, and be far more apt to curb the
runaway Judiciary by legislation, which the Constitution provides for.
Nelson Lee Walker
www.tenurecorrupts.com
One of the latest political furors is about the judiciary overreaching
and legislating from the bench. I believe that my pet concern about
Congressional Term Limits (www.tenurecorrupts.com) may provide
a solution to fix the runaway judiciary.
One of the problems with our wonderful American representative
republic/democracy is that in many parts of the government we
are suffering from a disease brought on by age and ‘tenure’. You
could call it ‘hardening of the arteries’.
When individuals in government (or any other pursuit!) occupy one
job or office for too long, they naturally become less effective at
that job. They begin to lose the energy, enthusiasm, and imagination
required to perform that job well. But they do learn how to best hold
on to the job, whether they are doing well or not, by ‘gaming’ the system.
And there is a significant tendency for such ‘used up’ politicians to
maintain the status quo, not only in their own situation, but in similar
situations thruout the government. Thus, even though the Judiciary
appears to be stealing Congressional responsibilities, the pols consider
this theft to be a way of shedding political ‘blame’ by avoiding tough
legislative choices and therefore favorable to their reelection chances.
In other words, "Let the judges do it!"
Term Limits would tend to bring in new congresspeople who would
have a fresh point-of-view, and be aware that the Judiciary was
behaving unconstitutionally, and be far more apt to curb the
runaway Judiciary by legislation, which the Constitution provides for.
Nelson Lee Walker
www.tenurecorrupts.com
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