Barely two months after all the votes from the 2012 elections have been counted, politicians are already spending increasing amounts of time planning for their reelections, instead of governing.
Fundraising and catering to big money donors seems to have taken priority over all else among lawmakers, who spend about half of their time soliciting campaign donations.
Term limits for members of the House and Senate would end that, and 75 percent of the American people support that idea now, according to a Gallup poll released on Friday.
The president, governors, and state representatives are all bound by term limits. But members of the House and Senate can literally spend their entire lives in the same elected office. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that the worst dysfunction and gridlock exists there, because they are exempt from term limits.
Money, corruption and politics are almost synonymous in the minds of too many Americans. And when the Supreme Court opened the floodgates of corporate money into the election process with their Citizens United decision, the problem only got worse. The 2012 elections were the most expensive in history.
While term limits may not stop the corrupting influence of money in politics and elections, they would make it easier for elected representatives to act like lawmakers, instead of beggars for campaign donations.
There is virtually no point in voting for anyone whose only purpose is to go to Washington, collect a taxpayer-funded paycheck, and do nothing but raise money so they can buy another term, and do nothing for another 2 years in the House and 6 years in the Senate.
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