Has Anyone Else Completely Lost Faith In The Government?

12thMan

CRedskins, there are a couple of problems with term limits. First, why penalize the politicians who are actually competent and principled at their job? If a district is prospering as a result of their representative introducing legislation, then the voters have every right to send that member back to Congress for another term. Basically, you limit the pool of qualified candidates by doing this.

The other problem with term limits, and somewhat related to my first point, you can't have term limits unless you have meaningful lobbying reform. The people that lobby Congress are, in many cases, more seasoned than the freshmen members of Congress. It makes no sense to have special interests with all the knowledge, insight, and ability to get bills past. It takes years to understand how to get things done on the Hill. Understanding the energy markets, financial regulations and Wall Street, and simply building relationships that benefit you and your constituents take time. In other words, the learning curb can be steep depending on what part of the country you represent, especially if you sit on a committee. Which brings up another problem, do we want new committee members rotating every few years? Hell no.

Take agricultural for example. If I'm a farmer in the midwest I want a member of Congress who understands the nature of agriculture; the impact of weather and trade agreements may have on my crops. Quite different from the guy who has a district in Seattle, where it's not as specialized or the issues as sophisticated. My point is term limits cuts both ways and in some cases it's not as practical to change the players every few years and expect results and progress.

JoeRedskin

The bottom line is, just like you can't create morality through legislation, you can't legislate or regulate an informed electorate into existence. You can regulate lobbiests, you can make term limits, BUT, if the voters don't take the time to investigate their governmental representatives (small "r"), then no amount of legislation is going to change things. Without the populous holding them accountable, lobbiests and corrupt politicians will simply find ways to manipulate and avoid the laws' and regulations' intent.

Listen to some of the comments on this board. Everyone is giving up. And this is from a cross-section of educated and generally well read individuals. In light of that, what chance is there for real reform or good governance. As more of us simply give up, it becomes harder and harder to change the status quo.

"Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite" ("Every country has the government it deserves"). Joseph de Maistre, Lettres et Opuscules Inédits, Vol. 1, letter 53: Dated August 15, 1811 (Published in 1851).

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My Little Pony: Friendship is magic? or ... a repressive matriarchal society where individuals' roles are defined by their immutable physical characteristics and governance is reserved for those who demonstrate the genetic purity of the pony master race?