Congressional Term Limits

[Aristocatt]

So as far as the cognitive decline stuff...That seems reasonable to me.  We can do things like basic cognitive tests that check for things like serious mental decline...but I can appreciate that it's difficult.  That's all a bit tangential to this topic anyway but still interesting!

When I here "Term limits make sense to me" it begs the question "Why"...which it looks like you expanded on in the next few sentences.
What benefit do we gain by forcibly ousting experienced politicians?  It seems like, and I am sorry if I am putting words in your mouth here, that you are grasping at maybe an idea of "New politicians have fresh ideas" and new ideas and perspectives can be a good thing?  Let me know if I missed the mark.

There is an element of "new blood" in my way of thinking.  Seems some of these long time politicians are simply professional politicians and tend to forget that their job is to represent their constituents.  

There is work to be done to break up the groups of politicians who band together like the ones now who plan to disrupt the finalizing of the electoral vote.  They are from all over the country so they aren't representing the same people.  It's a good ole boy group working together to support their grand poobah.  They are so far from working toward what's best for the people of this country and are showing their allegiance instead to Trump and the MAGA crowd.

I don't find the new blood narrative especially compelling, but I can definitely appreciate where you are coming from here, and I think it deserves to be considered quite carefully.

What I am unsure of is the following...
1) I'm not sure that breaking up "the good ole boys" actually changes the demographic make up of Congress...I thought I had a study on how this doesn't really change these kinds of dynamics much, but I can't find it at the moment...
2) I'm not convinced that new politicians are the only effective way of introducing new ideas...New ideas are constantly floated in Congress there are half a dozen different ideas for how health care should work proposed by various members of Congressional Democrats that made the rounds during the 2020 primary process.  In 2016 there were 2.  And prior to that we were still debating if ACA was a good idea in the infancy of the Obama presidency.


I don't really have solid clear evidence to support or deny these claims though, so I'm pretty agnostic on them at the moment, but I definitely appreciate the perspective you are working with and think it's a pretty valid one to pursue!  I asked for some arguments to help steel-man the case for term limits, and I think this is one, I definitely need to consider and look into more carefully, so thanks for that!

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I think that Senate term limits are more important than House term limits.

Senators rarely get voted out.  That by itself is a problem.  Either senators are just universally loved, or else the system gives them enormous advantages in re-election.  If the second, that can entrench corruption.

Good point. House members are voted on every 2 years. So there is in reality a higher turnover rate in the House than people think. 

But the Senate is far harder because districts are harder to flip with career Senators.  Gerrymandering has a lot to do with them being in office for so long. 
Gerrymandering doesn't exist for Senators?

But if we are switching out everyone in congress every 5 seconds you'd could still end up with gridlock. So while I am for term limits, not sure how short they should be. I could go with 12 years as a limit. I also think SCOTUS should be limited to 12 years too. 
Studies show you end up with more partisanship when you introduce term limits relative to no term limits, and those include states that have like 20 year term limits.  

Mitch McConnell has to be the biggest argument for term limits. He has been obstructing everything he doesn't like that Democrats pass in the House since 08 when Obama became President. Not 100% no, but certainly way too many bills have died on his desk.
Do you think things would be better in the Senate if some other Republican were running it?  

Study on term limits and partisanship
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/rogows...1527684612