www.tenurecorrupts.com
They said it can’t be done! I say it CAN be done!
A Congressional Term Limits Amendment (CTLA) WILL happen.
Ever since I started my term limits website TenureCorrupts.Com, I have been bombarded with negative and discouraging comments like “You’ll never succeed!”, and “You don’t expect Congress to cut their own throats, do you?” Well no, I don’t think it will be easy, but I think the voters will force the issue, one way or another. People will put up with Congressional arrogance only so long. And “It can’t be done” has proved wrong many times in the past..
History is full of examples where skeptics made fun of trailblazers:
Columbus was going to sail off the edge of the earth, Galileo was punished for saying the earth rotated around the sun, the automobile was a passing fad, airplanes couldn’t fly, etc, etc, etc.
Now, the common feeling is that we’ll never get Congressional Term Limits! And this is in spite of the fact that every time Term Limits is placed on any state or local ballot, it gets passed overwhelmingly! Not just barely, but overwhelmingly, like by a 70 to 30 ratio !
So why shouldn’t it get passed on a national ballot? Well, for one thing, there is currently no ‘Initiative’ procedure in Federal elections which would allow the voters to place it on a ballot. Term Limits requires a constitutional amendment proposed by Congress, who is adamantly opposed to the idea! Or by a Constitutional Convention, which many people are afraid of. Actually, it is worse than that. Since the Supreme Court recently decided that individual States cannot set term limits on their own Senators and Representatives in Congress, the growing trend toward State-determined Congressional Term Limits was stopped in its tracks, after 15 states had already enacted limits for their delegates.
However, there are so many ways that it could happen, and given that it is basically so popular with the voters, it really not a matter of whether it will happen, but when.
Let’s make a list of ways it could happen:
1. A simple national email campaign by all interested voters, simultaneously, to Congress, the media, and to bloggers, demanding a Congressional Term Limits Amendment (CTLA). (creating an Event!)
2. Get the Initiative process enacted in more States, and get a Congressional Term Limits Amendment on the the ballot in those States to force the legislature to demand a CTLA.
3. Call for a Constitutional Convention to call for a CTLA.
4. Appoint ‘originalist’ justices to the Supreme Court to reverse the decision which denied States the right to term limit their Congresspeople.
5. Coalesce the national trend toward local term limits into a movement which focusses on term limits for Congress.
6. Promote a national chainmail program demanding a CTLA.
7. Devise ways to get major institutions to periodically publish papers, and sponsor lectures and debates, to raise voter awareness of the benefits of Congressional Term Limits.
8. And finally, consider a movement to “Never Vote for ANY Incumbent” unless he pledges to not run again, and not to vote for any challenger unless he promises to term limit himself.
Our country NEEDS a Congressional Term Limit Amendment!
Nelson Lee Walker
www.tenurecorrupts.com
7/29/2005
7/11/2005
#22 WOULD CHAIN SNAILMAIL WORK ?
www.tenurecorrupts.com
Whether you are a good Democrat, Republican, or Independent, or whether you are a liberal, a conservative, or a libertarian, or whether you are an extreme leftist, or a moderate middle-of-the-roader, or an extreme right-winger, aren’t you becoming a little tired of the arrogant, pompous, lying, self-serving jackasses that make up our U.S.Congress ?
And doesn’t it bother you that they have fixed the system so that they succeed in getting reelected 99% of the time, unless they voluntarily quit or die? And they won’t let us set term limits on them ?
Well you CAN do something about it, and it won’t cost you anything but some copy/paste time and a few stamps ! Just as I am doing right now.
Because email will be spam-blocked, let’s just copy/print/send this letter as an old-fashioned snailmail chain letter to all our friends (at least 5, but the more the merrier), asking them to continue the chain, sending a snailmail copy of this letter to at least 5 of their friends.
It would also help to send snailmail copies to your 3 congresspeople AND to some local newspapers and TV/radio stations. And maybe to your favorite bloggers.
The objective is to get voters used to the idea of Term Limits for Congress.
AND, since we cannot get Congress to vote for a Term Limits Amendment, we should dedicate
ourselves to ALWAYS vote AGAINST THE INCUMBENT, in every election, whether we think he/she
is a ‘good guy’ or not, and whether he/she has served 1, 2, or 10 terms.
AND, whenever possible, vote for candidates who pledge to limit their terms.
After a couple of elections, if we have made a dent in the 99% reelection rate, maybe
‘career politicians’ will get the idea that if they want to serve even one more term,
they had better vote for an Amendment for Congressional Term Limits.
Let’s keep throwing the bums out until they give us Term Limits!
Nelson Lee Walker
nels96@yahoo.com
www.tenurecorrupts.com
Whether you are a good Democrat, Republican, or Independent, or whether you are a liberal, a conservative, or a libertarian, or whether you are an extreme leftist, or a moderate middle-of-the-roader, or an extreme right-winger, aren’t you becoming a little tired of the arrogant, pompous, lying, self-serving jackasses that make up our U.S.Congress ?
And doesn’t it bother you that they have fixed the system so that they succeed in getting reelected 99% of the time, unless they voluntarily quit or die? And they won’t let us set term limits on them ?
Well you CAN do something about it, and it won’t cost you anything but some copy/paste time and a few stamps ! Just as I am doing right now.
Because email will be spam-blocked, let’s just copy/print/send this letter as an old-fashioned snailmail chain letter to all our friends (at least 5, but the more the merrier), asking them to continue the chain, sending a snailmail copy of this letter to at least 5 of their friends.
It would also help to send snailmail copies to your 3 congresspeople AND to some local newspapers and TV/radio stations. And maybe to your favorite bloggers.
The objective is to get voters used to the idea of Term Limits for Congress.
AND, since we cannot get Congress to vote for a Term Limits Amendment, we should dedicate
ourselves to ALWAYS vote AGAINST THE INCUMBENT, in every election, whether we think he/she
is a ‘good guy’ or not, and whether he/she has served 1, 2, or 10 terms.
AND, whenever possible, vote for candidates who pledge to limit their terms.
After a couple of elections, if we have made a dent in the 99% reelection rate, maybe
‘career politicians’ will get the idea that if they want to serve even one more term,
they had better vote for an Amendment for Congressional Term Limits.
Let’s keep throwing the bums out until they give us Term Limits!
Nelson Lee Walker
nels96@yahoo.com
www.tenurecorrupts.com
7/10/2005
#21 TERM LIMITS IS NOT DEMOCRATIC ?
www.tenurecorrupts.com
One of my anti-term limits correspondents maintains that term limits do not belong in a democracy. She claims that candidates should be given free air time to get their messages out, and that the media should focus more on issues like the economy, the war, etc, and not on trivia like accidents and hurricanes.
On the last item, I could not agree with her more. However, the media live in a democracy, and we have to live with their choices.
But as far as free TV air time is concerned, that would be an unmitigated disaster. It is already bad enough when all sides have plenty of money to use to spread their many lies, distortions, and false allegations. (more of democracy’s blemishes). What do you think would happen if their air time was free? Every nut job in all creation would seek and get their allotted time to harangue us with junk propaganda, drowning out the messages of the few sane candidates out there. But yes, it would be more democratic.
But her contention that term limits is anti-democratic is nonsense, for several reasons:
Firstly, term limits only happens by a vote of the people, and a large majority at that.
It takes 2/3rds of each house of Congress, and 3/4ths of the states to pass it. How much more democratic can you get?
Secondly, in spite of the low regard that most people hold for politicians in general, why is it that the reelection of incumbents has reached the 99% level? Certainly not because their voters think that they are doing such a sterling job. No, it is more likely that most voters unthinkingly go along with the guy who is in office now, unless he has done something to anger them.
Thirdly, does it not seem that the 99% reelection rate is undemocratic on its face? It defies commonsense that 99% of challengers are inferior to the incumbents they run against.
Fourthly, I strongly disagree that a Congress full of term-limitted ‘citizen legislators’, fresh from the private sector, where they have gained a lot more real world experience than career professional politicians who have spent their life in government, would be 'led around by the nose’ by the staffs or the bureaucracy. No way!
I’m Nelson Lee Walker, and I believe our country needs Congressional Term Limits
www.tenurecorrupts.com
One of my anti-term limits correspondents maintains that term limits do not belong in a democracy. She claims that candidates should be given free air time to get their messages out, and that the media should focus more on issues like the economy, the war, etc, and not on trivia like accidents and hurricanes.
On the last item, I could not agree with her more. However, the media live in a democracy, and we have to live with their choices.
But as far as free TV air time is concerned, that would be an unmitigated disaster. It is already bad enough when all sides have plenty of money to use to spread their many lies, distortions, and false allegations. (more of democracy’s blemishes). What do you think would happen if their air time was free? Every nut job in all creation would seek and get their allotted time to harangue us with junk propaganda, drowning out the messages of the few sane candidates out there. But yes, it would be more democratic.
But her contention that term limits is anti-democratic is nonsense, for several reasons:
Firstly, term limits only happens by a vote of the people, and a large majority at that.
It takes 2/3rds of each house of Congress, and 3/4ths of the states to pass it. How much more democratic can you get?
Secondly, in spite of the low regard that most people hold for politicians in general, why is it that the reelection of incumbents has reached the 99% level? Certainly not because their voters think that they are doing such a sterling job. No, it is more likely that most voters unthinkingly go along with the guy who is in office now, unless he has done something to anger them.
Thirdly, does it not seem that the 99% reelection rate is undemocratic on its face? It defies commonsense that 99% of challengers are inferior to the incumbents they run against.
Fourthly, I strongly disagree that a Congress full of term-limitted ‘citizen legislators’, fresh from the private sector, where they have gained a lot more real world experience than career professional politicians who have spent their life in government, would be 'led around by the nose’ by the staffs or the bureaucracy. No way!
I’m Nelson Lee Walker, and I believe our country needs Congressional Term Limits
www.tenurecorrupts.com
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