A New Push for Term Limits

Although I've not been in favor of term limits, Bob Neff is on to what we're all on to: our senators and representatives not accomplishing enough while in office. Problems grow into catastrophes while those in office simply grow old without solving the problems. Just look at illegal immigration, now a problem affecting everything from health care to national security. Or the so-called "war" on drugs that has cost countless millions of dollars to wage and produced little in the way of results. Or the enormous expense involved in our spending on national defense, homeland security, nation-building, and foreign aid designed to gain the cooperation of other countries--all because of a foreign policy that succeeds only in keeping us in the cross-hairs of terrorists. Or the free availability of firearms to all, including those who pose a threat to our safety. Or the influence of money on our elected officials (lately writ large by the Supreme Court) and the legislation they pass or fail to, effectively taking away the one-vote, one person principle that has contributed so much to the greatness that was America.

Term limits, bonded or not, are a last resort of frustrated voters, not the smart weapon of informed ones. I agree we should hold our senators and representatives responsible for so many big problems left unsolved for far too long. We should do so, though, in the voting booth every election. There's no last resort in that. Our votes are an efficient weapon for weeding out the ineffective and the unreliable who slink into office despite our best efforts as gatekeepers.

An informed electorate converging on polling places every Election Day (and for primaries, too) would look pretty threatening to sleezier candidates for office. It's the best way to hold all politicians' feet to the fire, a great way to eliminate much of the influence of money on politics, and the only way to turn Washington, D.C., into problem-solving central.

Ron W. Smith of UT 4:20PM May 06, 2010