William Thien

You often hear people say they think term limits would solve most of the political problems in this country and that may be so, but why should we enact term limits aside from “we just don’t like that guy?” Many also believe that hoping for term limits is wishful thinking and that politicians in America will never yield to term limits. There are any number of reasons for term limits and some of them may not seem so obvious.

1. Times change. Particularly now things seem to be changing more rapidly due primarily to the development of the personal computer and smart phones. Technology is changing the speed of our daily lives and the amount of responsibility in our lives. We have more responsibility and less time. Things are done differently and things are done differently almost on a yearly or even monthly basis. All of that change has an effect upon our social activities and changes our lives, often leaving us with less free time and leisure time and less time to accomplish our goals. Yet, many politicians don’t like to change the way they are doing things. Their political parties don’t want to yield the authority either. This creates social distortion. Society is moving at one speed, politicians are dragging their feet at another. But if there is one reason why we need term limits aside from “we just don’t like that guy,” it is that times change and are times are changing more quickly than ever before.
2. We are living in an age when we are subject to political families that would seem to have a dynastic presence in public office, particularly at the federal level, and those families wage incredible influence over political party activity and behavior and as a result, the activity of the country itself. The cost to get elected and the difficulty of that task benefits from family name recognition as well as practical campaigning experience, with campaigning a difficult job in and of itself to be sure. I don’t need to mention any such families but it is sufficient to say that when one family member leaves office, another one steps up. First brother, then sister, parent, then child, husband, then wife, all of them benefiting from shared experiences and name recognition, something an upstart candidate could not and cannot compete with on a level playing field. It would be entirely naive to believe that there is no shared agenda among them or common goal which may not be to the best interest of the public. One way to control that politically dynastic trend is through term limits.
3. Control of and limitation of political party influence. Political seats are often vacated by a politician of one party and then occupied by another of the same party. Politicians will remain in their office at the behest of a political party until the party believes they can fill a seat that will be vacated by a member of their party. Term limits would put a direct stop to that kind of political behavior.
4. Bureaucratic stagnation results when you have politicians that maintain networks within their districts that are the result of long time relationships between a politician and the government employees in that district or jurisdiction tasked with enacting an agenda on behalf of the elected. Term limits would institute a natural turnover and enliven the democratic process in that district and its economy.

Those are just a few of the less obvious reasons for term limits that you will not hear any politician or political party chairman ever mention but they are some of the best reasons for term limits. Since we are unlikely to see term limits nationally in the near future, I believe an alternative might be a zero incumbency movement, where no matter who is in office, the population votes for the competition. It is just a consideration, something to think about. But if we are not going to see term limits, what other choice is there?

Copyright © William Thien 2020

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