- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
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No functioning democracy allows their representatives to sit for twelve terms.
12 terms sounds ridiculous, but they’re only 2 year terms. That’s far too short, and only keeps every Congressional Rep in constant reelection mode. No wonder Congress does such a crappy job, they’re always raising money, and/or campaigning.
They should have a 4 year term, with 50% being elected in the Midterms and the Presidential elections.
Changing all of the term limits and age restrictions needs to be a priority. Keeping zombies in power does no one any good.
Agreed. Plato even wrote about it in Laws.
In “Laws,” Plato suggests that senators should serve for a term of one year to ensure that they remain accountable and do not become too entrenched in power.
Refusing to allow voters to re-elect their preferred candidate just because they’ve hit some arbitrary time limit doesn’t seem very democratic to me
We definitely have a ton of problems with our campaign finance regulations and enforcement of those regulations which makes it so incumbents have a hugely unfair advantage because they’re just swimming in oceans of perfectly legal bribe money, but terms limits are a bad way to fix that problem imo. Punishes voters for lawmakers being shitty.
I hear this argument a lot. “Voters should be trusted.”
Voters gave us Trump.
Once you have power, you don’t want to let it go. It doesn’t matter if you are elected every two years or every four. You have power and as you stay in office you accumulate more and more power. In theory it’s to help your constituents but in the end it corrupts.
We can decide that that people shouldn’t be career politicians. We can go encourage these people that they can still serve the public by doing other things besides holding office.
Democracy always has arbitrary rules to it, nothing can ever be “fully” democratic.
If the system would be that at the end of second term the politicians get (with dignity, grace, and honours) executed in order to keep the ruling body impartial & fresh that is just part of the system.
Exactly as much as that babies can’t vote, that non-citizens or women can’t vote (despite living there), electoral bs votes, mandatory/non-mandatory voting, etc.
Most of the above are there to mitigate a circumstance that isn’t really avoidable.
One of such is ppl not investing the time to study the issues & options (vibe-voting, or like supporting a sports team) … yet later showing consistent public support for things that are not getting even discussed.So what is more/less democratic - “allowing” ppl to vote in the same 90+ incompetent scammer & then not getting eg pubic healthcare sorted, or simply allowing two terms max & possibly give voters more options by definition?
Technically an autocratic, unelected leader executing policies by public demand (voting, polling) can be more democratic than a system that elects leaders that then don’t execute the public will.(Is it really undemocratic that presidents of most countries can’t seek a third term??? Or is the system more democratic bcs of it, bcs the demos has to crat more? Ofc not to mention the obvious risk of abuse of power which grows with each day a politician is in power - which directly threatens democratic values by default.)
Also there isn’t really a core difference between setting a term limit to the president (of whatever) vs the term limit of representatives (of whatever). Yes the issues are more pronounced with the president, but not dissimilar.
Two words “term limits”
It’s not like he went bad as a result of serving too many terms—he was a corrupt neoliberal from day one. Term limits aren’t a cure for that.
But if there was a limit, at least he would be in that position for only one or two terms
the doddering that comes with age is one problem and milquetoast neoliberalism is another. We can solve for the age one.
Don’t worry, they’ll find some 79 year old to take his place.
How soon until we get term limits for these ancient fucks?
Term Limits are a ‘Monkey’s Paw’ wish waiting to happen; it will just shift the power from the elected representatives to unelected staffers, advisors and lobbyists.
The correct solution is to have a forced retirement age for politicians - if you’re old enough to receive a pension, you’re too old to hold elected office.
We’re going to get term limits in 1994, when Gingrich’s majority makes good on their Contract With America. Susan Collins will lead the charge.
Condolences, but 80 is too fucking old.
In the last two years 8 Congressmen have died in office. 7 of them were Democrats, and only two were younger than 70, and none younger than 65.
Can you imagine loving your power so much you choose to die in power than enjoy a guaranteed retirement?
I’ve heard speculation that Congresscritters keep running entirely for the health care benefits.
Like, once you get that old, you just want the kind of care only the government can provide
It’s true. They have access to true socialised healthcare that they deny to everybody else. They are well aware of its advantages.
Why would they do that? I’m pretty sure they get those benefits for life.
They don’t get access to DC hospitals and doctors, or a Congressional staff that can substitute as home health care workers.
I was about to say wow we need to fix that but fuck em. Term limits and they can die alone in their own diapers like the rest of us.
Do some of them require their parliamentary immunity maybe ?
Skeksis have entered the chat
Ok?
It’s a clear indication of the massive disconnect from the reps and the constituents. I don’t feel like that was a hard road to walk down to figure that out honestly.
Jesus Christ. Get the old fucks out of Congress.
all federal employees should have mandatory retirement at 70. Including congress, judges, and president.
70?? No one over the age of 63.
I believe it was Japan, but I was having a casual conversation with someone from SEA area and he told me publicly traded companies had a mandatory retirement age of like 68 for executives. I thought that was interesting.
I’d go to 75, maybe 78, but no more than 80. That’s definitely time to go.
75 is the mandatory retirement age for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
We require pilots to retire at the age of 65. If they’re not fit to fly a plane, why would they be fit to run a country?
Something like 120 in congress are over 70 years old, so over 20%.
bOtH pArTiEs are unwilling to fix this, that 20% are of course much more powerful than newer members. Maxine Waters, Mitch McConnell, and others are over 80; McConnell is visibly, horribly, embarrassingly impaired, and still in office. Maxine is 87 and is the modern incarnation of Smaug, sitting upon her immense treasure hoard.
Yet another humiliation for Americans… and they have the best healthcare insurance on Earth, while the lifespan of their own constituents falls.
Go ahead and vote, but I don’t think we can vote our way out of this and that change must be forced upon them by others.
John Roberts was 67 when his geriatric lapse rendered the 2024 election illegitimate and fraudulent.
79% of Americans want age caps.
Pilots are retired at 65 years old.
The unfolding geriatric catastrophe of the White House is enabled by Democratic Party failure to press the issue of age. Geriatrics with a stranglehold on party politics damned us to continued geriatric incompetence.
It follows that the only path to restoring the constitutional order is the immediate removal of all geriatric politicians at every level. Federal, State, Judiciary, Legislative, Executive. 100% gone.
It’s not difficult: “respect for elders” shouldn’t be a suicide pact.
The Democratic Party, which is a private institution not beholden to the electorate, has a seniority system for high ranking positions. The Republican Party doesn’t. I’m no fan of Republicans, but this should be understood by anyone trying to understand the situation.
Once it’s understood that geriatric politicians are a disease, the only thing that matters is removing geriatric politicians, regardless of party.
I don’t disagree, but I think it will be more difficult with the Democratic Party given the way the party is run.
If they represent public affairs, they should be beholden to the electorate. Fuck this hiding behind private institution bullshit.
79% of Americans say they want age caps for elected officials, but they keep voting for people older than those age caps, and that is the result that counts in the end.
Mine’s 82 and been in some sort of office since 1974, senator since ‘09. And he’s running again. I’m kinda surprised the MAGAts haven’t primaried him. He’s not anti-Trump, but also not really invested in the vision, more of a classic “good old boy” Republican.
You’ll find that a lot of people here don’t care how old Sanders is (older than McConnell). It’s his turn.
I’m on record saying Sanders should retire.
He fought the good fight. The best thing he can do is to endorse someone young to take his place.
We need more young people to get into politics.
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death is the new political retirement
I know some really spry 80 year olds but I wouldn’t trust any of them with such responsibility. They’re out of touch, forgetful, etc. Great partners for golf, gaming, and other forms of entertainment but I don’t want them in charge of anything.
My grandpa is politically shrewd and still as smart as he ever was in his 90s. He’s very atypical for that and spends most of his time sleeping and managing the general pain and discomfort of being that old. At such advanced age one really should be retiring.
Time to turn it over to the next generation. Oh wait. The next generation already hit retirement age!
With less than 1/10 of the money.
Maximum age for first term should be 59 and no more than 8 years. That puts them at 67 and they should retire.
Whenever an elected official has a heart attack, stroke, or cancer they should have to publicly disclose it.
There’s an oddly well written scientific paper on Death in Congress. Made me laugh out loud.
They need to fix those age requirements. Even God wanted that guy to retire but he was hanging on.
I don’t know. As I get older I am developing opinions. A lot of them. On everything! What sauce is best with cheeseburgers. How short should my neighbours’ lawn be. Should banks be open on sundays.
By 80, if I’m still kicking, I’ll be ready to discuss any boring topic for hours before a vote. Anything.
Meanwhile, you get lucky if your representative’s staffers read the bills before a vote.
