Term Limits

[YukonJack]

There is a plague that poisons politics and common decency in both Canada and the United States:

Freeloaders who think that it is their right to suck the life-blood of decent citizens to eternity. Who think that getting elected gives them the right to forever be parasitic on hard-working people. Who think that their office gives them the right to poke their employers - i.e. their electors - in the eye, following any and all misguided Party line.

Any politician who thinks that he/she should be there for more than two terms/eight years, whichever comes first, can be described as a leech, a freeloader and a parasite. There should be a law to excise these cancers on the body of humanity.

That is my opinion. What is yours?

 

[Praxius]

If someone does a good job and the majority of a population likes the work that they do, I don't see why they should be restricted by some fixed bureaucratic technicality of being in a position for too long.

If they do a bad job, vote them out in the next election.... if they do a good job, keep them in until they stop doing a good job.

It never made sense to have someone come in, and actually does a good job most or all of the time they're in power, then boot them out because they've been there too long and take your chances on some other guy who might do things worse.

If it ain't broke don't fix it, as they say... however having someone pushed out of a job just because some time limit is up and regardless if the majority of the people want them to stay, it's more like "Even if it ain't broke, it expired based on a subjective time limit, so we're gonna try and fix it."

 

[YukonJack]

Praxius, a "GOOD JOB" to a few hundred people (the immediate constituents) maybe (and usually is) a bad and selfish bribe as far as the rest of the country is concerned.

Also, worth remembering that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If any politician did not succombed to bribes and corruption in two terms, it is a sure bet that he/she will in the next.

There is no politician on either side of the border who has not been corrupted by power and its frills, past two terms.

Sure sign of corruption after two terms is being comfortable in running for a third one.

 

[AnnaG]

If the pol is good then he/she might want to get as much done as possible in the time they have. If the pol is a jerk, any time is too much. As it happens, Canadians have had mostly duds and culls. Besides that, you can change your vote to whatever MP you like but that is highly unlikely to change anything in Ottawa. People outside of ON and QC are usually outvoted anyway.

 

[YukonJack]

AnnaG, there is no such thing/person as a good politician after two terms.

Challenge you to name one and prove it.

 

[DurkaDurka]

I wouldn't be averse to term limits for the PM & Senate.

 

[AnnaG]

AnnaG, there is no such thing/person as a good politician after two terms.

Challenge you to name one and prove it.

In Canada, not lately, but King was fairly well thought of and he lasted 22 years in 3 stretches and was in politics from 1908 till 1948.

King, William Lyon Mackenzie - The Canadian Encyclopedia

Lester Pearson was MP for Algoma East (over there by Sudbury, ON) from 1948 till 1968. He is well-thought of.

Pearson, Lester B. - The Canadian Encyclopedia

If I looked around the planet, I'd likely find a lot of politicians who did more good than harm and lasted more than 8 years. People in the States kept voting Strom Thurman into office. If they didn't think he was any good, why would they do that?

Actually, I think Rene Levesque was a damned good politician. Even ChRETIeN was a good politician. He was a crook but a good politician.

 

[Bar Sinister]

AnnaG, there is no such thing/person as a good politician after two terms.

Challenge you to name one and prove it.

Tommy Douglas, J.S. Woodsworth. There are two for you. Yes I know they were both socialists, but no one ever found them guilty of anything more than wishing to serve their country.

 

[Johnnny]

a term is a term, wheather you do a good job or not, when your time is up its up

 

[Liberalman]

With term limits it take longer to do anything of value.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Praxius, a "GOOD JOB" to a few hundred people (the immediate constituents) maybe (and usually is) a bad and selfish bribe as far as the rest of the country is concerned.

Also, worth remembering that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If any politician did not succombed to bribes and corruption in two terms, it is a sure bet that he/she will in the next.

There is no politician on either side of the border who has not been corrupted by power and its frills, past two terms.

Sure sign of corruption after two terms is being comfortable in running for a third one.

Term limits trump the will of the people. That is what we have elections for, to elect the best politicians. If after two terms people still think that someone has the potential to do more good, people must have that option available.

Indeed, no elected office in USA or Canada at the federal level has term limits, except the US presidency. And limit on the presidency was not imposed out of some altruistic motives, out of consideration that president may have outlived his usefulness after two terms.

The two term limit on presidency is of recent origin. The origin of the two term limit on presidency was purely political in nature. FDR served four terms as president. Republicans were hopping mad about it, and they wanted to make sure that no Democrat served four terms ever again. That is why they enacted a constitutional amendment, limiting president to only two terms.

Republicans bitterly regretted it during Reagan’s time. Republicans wanted Reagan to run for a third term, they thought he would have been a shoe in for a third term. There even was some talk of repealing the two term limit on presidency, but it didn’t’ get anywhere.

In my opinion, term limits are undemocratic.

 

[nels96]

tenurecorrupts.com

But FIRST, we must create a groundswell, as follows:

A Congress of career politicians will NEVER allow us to constitutionally term limit them by an amendment. But... WE CAN IMPOSE term limits on them in Congressional elections (‘2010, 2012, 2014......):

1. Never reelect your Congressman or Senator.
2. Always vote, but only for the strongest challenger , regardless of party .

If Congress has not passed a term limits bill by 2014, repeat this in 2016, 2018....

Our only intelligent choice is to NEVER REELECT anyone in Congress!

The only infallible, unstoppable, guaranteed way to get a truly new Congress, AND a new politics, is NEVER REELECT ANY INCUMBENT! DO IT EVERY ELECTION until term limits is ratified. In other words, don't let anyone serve more than one term until Congress passes a term limits bill!

NEVER REELECT ANYONE IN CONGRESS. DO IT EVERY ELECTION! ... until we ratify term limits.

Nelson Lee Walker of tenurecorrupts.com

 

[Tonington]

Challenge you to name one and prove it.

How about two? Tommy Douglas. Bill Casey.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

But FIRST, we must create a groundswell, as follows:

A Congress of career politicians will NEVER allow us to constitutionally term limit them by an amendment. But... WE CAN IMPOSE term limits on them in Congressional elections (‘2010, 2012, 2014......):

1. Never reelect your Congressman or Senator.
2. Always vote, but only for the strongest challenger , regardless of party .

If Congress has not passed a term limits bill by 2014, repeat this in 2016, 2018....

Our only intelligent choice is to NEVER REELECT anyone in Congress!

The only infallible, unstoppable, guaranteed way to get a truly new Congress, AND a new politics, is NEVER REELECT ANY INCUMBENT! DO IT EVERY ELECTION until term limits is ratified. In other words, don't let anyone serve more than one term until Congress passes a term limits bill!

NEVER REELECT ANYONE IN CONGRESS. DO IT EVERY ELECTION! ... until we ratify term limits.

Nelson Lee Walker of tenurecorrupts.com

Quite so, that is the only way to legitimately have term limits. Let the people vote politicians out of office.

 

[Machjo]

There is a plague that poisons politics and common decency in both Canada and the United States:

Freeloaders who think that it is their right to suck the life-blood of decent citizens to eternity. Who think that getting elected gives them the right to forever be parasitic on hard-working people. Who think that their office gives them the right to poke their employers - i.e. their electors - in the eye, following any and all misguided Party line.

Any politician who thinks that he/she should be there for more than two terms/eight years, whichever comes first, can be described as a leech, a freeloader and a parasite. There should be a law to excise these cancers on the body of humanity.

That is my opinion. What is yours?

So you're saying that if a particular local MP is doing a good job and is will liked by his constituents, we ought to remove from the voters the freedom to vote for him? That doesn't sound too democratic to me.

 

[Machjo]

If someone does a good job and the majority of a population likes the work that they do, I don't see why they should be restricted by some fixed bureaucratic technicality of being in a position for too long.

If they do a bad job, vote them out in the next election.... if they do a good job, keep them in until they stop doing a good job.

It never made sense to have someone come in, and actually does a good job most or all of the time they're in power, then boot them out because they've been there too long and take your chances on some other guy who might do things worse.

If it ain't broke don't fix it, as they say... however having someone pushed out of a job just because some time limit is up and regardless if the majority of the people want them to stay, it's more like "Even if it ain't broke, it expired based on a subjective time limit, so we're gonna try and fix it."

Ditto.

 

[Machjo]

Praxius, a "GOOD JOB" to a few hundred people (the immediate constituents) maybe (and usually is) a bad and selfish bribe as far as the rest of the country is concerned.

Also, worth remembering that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If any politician did not succombed to bribes and corruption in two terms, it is a sure bet that he/she will in the next.

There is no politician on either side of the border who has not been corrupted by power and its frills, past two terms.

Sure sign of corruption after two terms is being comfortable in running for a third one.

One MP has no power without the support of a majority of MPs. That's hardly absolute power. And as for assuming that a politician is corrupt because he wins so many elections, then what ever happened to the principle of being proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt? You don't believe in that now?

 

[Machjo]

AnnaG, there is no such thing/person as a good politician after two terms.

Challenge you to name one and prove it.

Defamation of character is illegal. If you claim that any MP who wins more than one seat, then it's up to you to prove that each and every such MP guilty of a crime, in which case it's your duty as a citizen to report that MP to the police.

 

[ironsides]

There is a plague that poisons politics and common decency in both Canada and the United States:

Freeloaders who think that it is their right to suck the life-blood of decent citizens to eternity. Who think that getting elected gives them the right to forever be parasitic on hard-working people. Who think that their office gives them the right to poke their employers - i.e. their electors - in the eye, following any and all misguided Party line.

Any politician who thinks that he/she should be there for more than two terms/eight years, whichever comes first, can be described as a leech, a freeloader and a parasite. There should be a law to excise these cancers on the body of humanity.

That is my opinion. What is yours?

Two terms, no more.

 

[JLM]

There is a plague that poisons politics and common decency in both Canada and the United States:

Freeloaders who think that it is their right to suck the life-blood of decent citizens to eternity. Who think that getting elected gives them the right to forever be parasitic on hard-working people. Who think that their office gives them the right to poke their employers - i.e. their electors - in the eye, following any and all misguided Party line.

Any politician who thinks that he/she should be there for more than two terms/eight years, whichever comes first, can be described as a leech, a freeloader and a parasite. There should be a law to excise these cancers on the body of humanity.

That is my opinion. What is yours?

You've pretty well nailed it Y.J. There's two main problems with politicians........rationalization and GREED.