Term Limits Essential To A Democracy

Solving a city's many problems begins with one simple act, term limits. If our founding fathers had known that today's legislators would so forget their obligations to their constituents and assume that being elected to office was the way to almost certain permanent employment for themselves (Musical chairs from a council seat to Council-at-Large and on...) the men who wrote our Constitution might well have included term limits as a necessary part of elective public service.

Without term limits, the voters can only talk about what we want our elected representatives to do and remind them that they are there to solve problems and act for the general welfare. One can list the issues facing a city: deficit, flooding, senior care, economic conditions, deteriorated infrastructure, thriving businesses, affordable housing.  Candidates talk about them and promise solutions but do little or nothing once in office. I firmly believe in term limits for public office at the local, state and federal levels, and believe such a change will have a very positive impact.

"We the People" seem to have lost the power granted to us by our Founding Fathers. One Council member with two years to go runs for Council-At-Large, and no one can run for the Council seat because the term hasn't expired. It's my belief the musical chairs between council seats flies in the face of what voters vote on. To be blunt, "We the People" are pretty stupid for allowing this imbalanced, unfair system of election to continue. These politicians get in office and they're the ones who decide the issues. We the People need to make the change by petitioning for a ballot referendum for term limits-a flat 8 or 12 years no matter what the office. Term limitations could be the incentive needed to motivate them into performing their sworn duties in a timely manner instead of doing some this term and some the next term and so on. This system will not be fixed by those who broke it. Concerned citizens would see this as a positive reform, a necessary step  to make incumbents think more about the good of their city and less about their next campaign, to open the system to more people from a variety of professions, and to make the public officials more interested in serving the welfare of their city. 

Emery Pinter

Worked in marketing research, marketing, and was a Librarian and Bookstore Manager.

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Volume 13, Issue 7, Posted 8:43 AM, 07.01.2021