politics

Early this week Senator Arlen Specter resigned from the Republican Party. This senior Senator from Pennsylvania played politics during this decision, as he did not want his thirty year career to end by losing the Republican primary in Pennsylvania.

Perfect example of a career politician. Now, you all have seen me mostly judge from the left on political issues. And this is an issue that I find to be non-partisan, meaning no political party is willing to take it on.

The reason that term limits have not been imposed on politicians is because, well, quite frankly they would have to be the ones to set the limits to this tenure. If your boss came up to you and said "We're having a vote later today on whether or not you should be able to work here for longer than 5 years," this would be a no-brainer.

Until there is a large scale movement to fund candidates through non-profits who are willing to argue the issue of term limits, there will never be an end to this. And this is a difficult proposition, because most non-profits tend to support one side or the other. This issue creates a catch 22 within our bureaucracy that is difficult to deal with.

In 1994 Conservative Think Tank the Heritage Foundation supported Newt Gingrich in a measure to try to impose term limits. I found an article from the Washington Post about this particular piece of legislation which failed to get the necessary 2/3 majority vote that year.

Read the Heritage Foundation's write-up on "Government Reform" here.