When I was young, I thought term limits were a good idea.
I’ve since changed my mind. For years now I’ve suggested that losing accumulated experience for no particular reason other than length of tenure seemed like a waste of hard-won skills and talents. If a member of Congress is unworthy, then the voters should recognize that and kick them out. That is the job of the voters, after all, and term limits is a usurpation of the voters’ rights.
I say this as a lead-in to this reporting:
Norm Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, says term limits might bring in younger senators — but also politicians less interested in legislating and more interested in advancing themselves. That means the real power effectively ends up in the hands of staffers and lobbyists.
He points to California, which enacted state legislature term limits in 1990 and in 2012 modified them to create a lifetime maximum of 12 years.
“The whole idea was to channel ambition in a different way: If you’re only there for a limited period of time, you’re going to be more focused on doing the right thing,” he says. “The reality is exactly the opposite: What ends up happening is you channel ambition in exactly the wrong way. There is less interest in institutional preservation or maintenance. Why would you do something that benefits an institution that you’re going to be leaving? You want to do something that has a big splash now so that you can use it to move to your next job.”
Ornstein is concerned about the loss of institutional memory and relationships (especially in the Senate) if members would be limited to two terms. Critics of term limits point to Ted Kennedy, who served 46 years and did most of his important legislation during his last terms. Or they cite Bob Dole and Joe Biden, who did significant work throughout very long careers. [WaPo]
I might also note that in a term-limit world, there is less motivation to become better at your job, since it’ll be disappearing soon enough. If we want a really amateur Congress, then term limits is the way to go. Then, for the conservative reader, the ‘deep state’ becomes ever more important.
