There is major problem with democracies ... at least in their current form. And most Americans agree. That is that politicians often enter office as poor reformers ... and leave office decades later filthy rich and in need of reforming. This is the opposite of what our founding fathers envisioned ... that of non-professional politicians who also had other jobs to which they would return after a few terms in office.
Term limits for politicians have been proposed as a solution, because those who once get elected have time-tested ways of convincing their voters that they really need to go back to Washington. Besides, term limits also wash out even the few good pols. I think I may have a solution to this dilemma which I first proposed as a comment on Diplomad 2.0. That is that pols could accumulate retirement benefits for their first 6-10 years in office ... but then start losing them thereafter. If an elected official stayed in office for, say, 40 years, then all their retirement benefits would have been totally forfeited.
If this were the process, then only dedicated patriots would stay in office forever. Less motivated and self-serving politicians would likely term-limit themselves out of office. Wouldn't that be nice?
Ah, aren't you the romantic dreamer. Who would vote for such a law? I read a proposal recently that suggested a two-term limit. One term in congress and one term in prison.
ReplyDeleteAlternative strategy: Everytime pols are re-elected, reduce their salary by 10%. Results would be the same. Perhaps we could do this via a nationwide referendum?
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