The World According to Opa

“Mothers all want their sons to grow up to become President. But they don’t want them to become politicians first.” ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

How often have you heard someone say, “Congress should have term limits?” I hear it all the time. I’ll bet you have too. Maybe you’ve expressed that same opinion yourself. Second question: Have you ever heard anyone argue against the idea, anyone other than a politician, that is? Well, I’m all for it. But I very much doubt that it’ll ever come to pass.

What would have to happen for Congressional term limits to come about? A Constitutional Amendment would have to happen, that’s what. And how would that work?

Article V of the Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress, with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. So far the Constitution has been Amended 27 times. But never has it been amended by constitutional convention. With so much rivalry and independence between the states, that path is just too cumbersome. Besides, many state legislators have their eyes on bigger and better things; they might like to someday make a run for higher office themselves. But even if they have no such ambition, why would any of them want to alienate their state’s federal legislators? They wouldn’t. They need good will in Washington.

Benefits of Congressional term limits, gleaned from Vittana.org pros and cons, are:

1. It would bring new ideas to the table. When the same people get reelected to Congress time and time again, the same debates happen over and over again. Low turnover rates in Congress create a foundation of stale ideas and stalemate. New perspectives can provide different types of influence and that can inspire changes which may benefit the whole of society. Senators and Representatives would be able to bring more to each discussion because they are less likely to be isolated from their districts.

2. It may encourage people to vote. Many people vote in every election, but a majority of people in a district not voting is becoming an all-too-common occurrence. If people know that their Senator or Representative is likely to be re-elected, they feel like there isn’t a need to get involved in the political process. By establishing term limits, more people could come out to vote because there would be more opportunities for change.

3. It would stop political power maneuvering. Many of the political machines in the United States are designed to keep people in office. Before his first 100 days in office were even completed, Donald Trump had a 2020 re-election PAC in place and was raising money for his next campaign. Incumbents can wield a lot of power to stay in office and term limits would help to cut this leverage away. The focus can be placed on governing instead of being elected.

4. It would limit the influence of lobbying. Special interests lobby many of their efforts toward keeping specific people in power once they’ve been elected to Congress. They do this because those people can represent their specific interests. The only problem is that special interests are often contrary to what the will of the people happen to want. By establishing term limits in Congress, more new candidates would be able to present their ideas and that could help to balance out the scales of influence in each election.

5. It allows for newly elected officials to have influence. The system of seniority in Congress does have some benefits for leadership, but it also comes with a large disadvantage. Newly elected officials rarely receive powerful posts on committees or can influence procedures. That responsibility goes to those who have more seniority and power. As a result, new Senators and Representatives may spend more of their time trying to get a foot in the door than the time they spend actually crafting helpful legislation. Term limits would make it possible for more elected officials to influence the direction of the country.

6. It could limit the potential for corruption. When politicians have a specific time in office, there is less of a risk of corruption entering into the conversation. Newly elected officials will usually have less knowledge about how to influence Congress for their own personal gain. New members are usually more skeptical of special interest lobbying efforts as well. Having more new faces come through because of term limits would make it more difficult to unduly influence future laws.

7. It could create rogue politicians. When an elected official is in their last term in office, they can use that opportunity to drive legislation forward that may not be politically popular. They can pursue what they feel is best for their district and their country because criticism and everyday politics can then be ignored. It is a chance to create meaningful and lasting change. This could also be considered an argument against Congressional term limits; many conservative thinking people do not want progressive change (see other reasons below why this could also be a con).

The list of cons is fewer in number:

1. Good leaders would be forced to retire. Term limits are beneficial if there are poor leaders in Congress that keep getting re-elected. At the same time, however, you’re also removing the good leaders who work hard and might deserve to stay in office.

2. It changes the learning curve. There’s a saying that goes, “It takes 6 months to learn a job and another 6 months to become good at it.” Being a Senator or Representative has a learning curve, just like every other job. For Representatives especially, their entire first term might be dedicated to learning how things work in Congress. By enforcing term limits, more politicians would be forced to go through this learning curve and that could mean even less stuff gets done.

3. Networking benefits would be lost. Over time, politicians develop a professional network, just like most people do in their own line of work. The difference is that the network of a politician can include officials from other governments, from industry leaders, and people with niche expertise. The presence of that network can help stuff get done. Term limits would require more networks to be developed from scratch.

4. It could create rogue politicians. If a member of Congress is on their last term in office, they know that they won’t be re-elected. There is no motivation for them to be a true representative at that point. They can choose to ignore what their district wants because there is no longer any accountability. Not every politician would go rogue, but term limits would increase the chances that such an event could occur.

I heard another argument against term limits recently. It came, of course from a politician already serving (maybe a better word would be, “functioning”) in an elected office. The argument was that businesses benefit from legislative stability. To me, this sounds like one more reason for us to have term limits rather than one not have them. But everything depends on one’s perspective.

Despite what seems to me to be the obvious and overwhelming benefits to be derived from having term limits for Congress, the prospects for adoption of the idea, in my considered opinion, are slim to none. Why? Because Congress has a great deal of power, balanced, only in theory, by the two other branches of government, the Presidency and the Supreme Court. Congressional members’ power being near absolute, there is no reason, from their perspective, why they should ever resolve to reduce it. Further, absolute power corrupts absolutely, does it not? Accordingly, we might as well stop talking about this, unless, of course, we are willing to start a second revolution to rid ourselves of the new tyranny with which the Founders have left us.

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