“Throw the Bums Out!”
“If banks are too big to fail . . . make ’em smaller.”
–former Reagan Cabinet member George Schultz
“If the government is too complicated to be run by anyone but career politicians . . . make it simpler.”
–Ross Kaplan
The last time the public was this fed up with Congress, 20(!) years ago, Ross Perot popped up to run for President as a third-party candidate, and term limits were a “hot button” issue.
What happened next?
Bill Clinton got elected, the economy boomed (too much, at the end), and the issue went away.
With public regard for Congress at an all-time low, you’d guess conditions are right to revisit term limits (I’m in favor).
Double-Edged Arguments
Personally, I never bought opponents’ argument that term limits would deprive the government of needed expertise and leadership.
Exactly where was that all expertise and leadership a few weeks ago, when a breakaway faction in the minority party shut down the government?
Ditto for argument #2, which is essentially the flip side of the same coin: that modern-day government is so complex that it takes career politicians to run it.
Sounds to me to like a great argument for simplifying government enough that it can be run by citizen-legislators.
You know, with real lives and careers to get back to.
In other words . . . normal people.
Think of government service like jury duty, vs. the undignified if not grotesque, money-besotted charade increasingly reminiscent of the Capitol in “The Hunger Games.”
P.S.: Note that Wall Street trots out the same argument(s) to rationalize appointing its leaders — or acolytes — to senior government finance posts.
You know, little jobs like Treasury Secretary, Federal Reserve Chairman, SEC commissioner, etc.
