Congressional Term Limits

[arewethereyet]

48 years is a long damn time for the same old miserable man to hold the office.  

Look him up - among other things stacked with his skeletons was the bi-racial daughter he denied.  

Were he still alive he would be right in line with the pu&&y grabbing, racist Trump cult.  

The only time I had an ounce of concern was when his lovely young daughter was killed when walking in the college area of Columbia after being hit by a drunk driver. 

He was an awful human being all around but the people of SC kept voting him in...something you probably won't find is information regarding the parades he participated in that also included Klan members in full robes.

So he sounds like a shit person.  I'm on board with you there.

My question about age limits, is that, it seems like the issue as initially framed was that he was able to stay in office well past the point where he was mentally/physically competent enough to do the job(regardless of how shit a candidate he was).  That to me seems like an issue with age rather than term.

Put another way...If he had never been in Congress before, a term limit would not prevent the assistants from "pulling the strings" on an old man elected to office.

Also, if our concerns are with our elected officials having their strings pulled by congressional staffers, lobbyists, special interest groups, etc, etc...
The evidence for this isn't really great for term limit advocacy(Although, it is worth repeating every time I post any evidence here...that the evidence that I can find is pretty sparse across the board, I don't think any of this makes it clear cut, but it's a starting point for us to be skeptical about our intuitions on the issue.)...
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10....0100100404

I hesitate to put an upper age limit on anyone.  You can have a person in their 50s with early onset dementia who clearly shouldn't be holding an important government position and you can have someone like RBG who was sharp as a tack right up to the end of her life at 84.  

When you start putting an upper age limit on people you are losing out on people with knowledge and experience that can't be found everywhere.

There's a reason the president can only serve a certain number of terms in office.  I don't see why that type of term limit isn't reasonable in other government positions.

**Speaking of RBG - I am not a fan of the lifelong appointments for SCOTUS.  I'm just saying I think she was still quite capable, regardless of age, to do the job.