Term Limits for Congress?
John Hawkins has a post on term limits (as part of his Friday Q & A series). He says that imposing term limits might be tough, 1. because reps would have to vote themselves out of a job and 2. that a constitutional amendment is tough to pass.
He is correct on those points, but I would like to add that the Founders didn’t want representatives to make a career out of politics.
Granted, I am remembering this from high school (way too long ago), but I remember that the terms set for the House and for the Senate were set that way for a reason. House members terms were set for two years so that someone could take some time out of their regular life to represent their neighbors in Congress, but not too much time. The doctor, lawyer, business owner, farmer, could take a few years and be part of the process.
The Senate term was set at six so that there would be some continuity in congress. The founders did not want the entire congress to change every two years.
Look at what we have now: professional politicians rather than real representatives of the people.
