pan6467

I know I buck the general popular opinion, but term limits are not the answer for congress. I believe it just gives the parties more strength, in that people would start voting solely by partisanship. It also punishes "we the people" by taking truly good men out. Plus, it will never happen. The GOP promised term limits would become law in 1994's Contract With America and once in power they failed to follow through.

People tend to vote for the incumbent, it is shown again and again in poll after poll that districts love their individual rep, but dislike Congress as a whole. No one wants to truly believe the man they voted to put into office, have bumper stickers for, had yard signs for, had given money to is not doing his best to help them. People did this with Bush for a long time. People did this with Kennedy, they do it with Bernie Sanders, Lieberman who changed affiliation, and so on.

The only true solution, IMHO, is townhall meetings to make them accountable to their district and state. This makes them accountable for what they do to the district, it allows them to see if the people are flourishing or suffering because of his/her stances. Townhall meetings would make them have to explain why they voted tax money away to build a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, why they won't truly do anything to fix healthcare, why they won't do anything about the border with Mexico until the drug warlords there have flooded our streets with drugs and have started killing innocent people. And so on.

The very last thing we need is for good congressmen/women to be booted out because of term limits..... and there are some good ones in there. They just get buried by the schmucks and partisanship bullshit.

Term limits sound good but it takes a minute or 2 to get a grasp on this great big country's picture and decide how they need to fix it. The vast majority don't take the time to do that and thus they just vote along party lines. Those are the ones that would get crushed in townhall meetings. That "like" and desire to protect their congressman would in essence disappear if in a townhall they couldn't answer questions as to why they voted for that bridge to nowhere, why they were silent about the AIG bonuses until it leaked, why they do what they do. Townhall meetings would force them to be more intelligent and aware of what is going on and they would be able to let us know.

The press has failed. Local news papers have either been bought by national conglomerates with their own agenda or are unable to financially stay afloat and have cut back on local reporters. Local television news is a joke because the conglomerate that owns them dictates what they report and again the finances to dig in to serious stories are next to nil. That's why sweep week it's always an in depth study of strip clubs. Sex sells even on the news. It's all about making money not in depth reporting of stories that truly affect the people.

So in order for the people to truly get an idea of what is happening in Washington, to hold Congress truly accountable, to get Congress to see outside the bubble that the party tries to blind them to.... we need townhall meetings. We need an accountable Congress not a Congress that every 2,4,6,8 years will be completely different.

Corrupt individuals will be corrupt in one term or 10 terms. Power that is not accountable for corrupts. Making one accountable for the power entrusted to them makes the chance for corruption a little less... if a congressman sees that a bill he helped pass because of party pressure hurt his district and that the people at home are asking him why he voted for it and he can only say because the party told him to.... he's going to have 2 options make it better or face defeat his next election. The party would suffer to. If the congressman states that was how the party told him to vote and he knew it was wrong but they threatened to silence him and take away other things he fought for for his district.... the party then looks bad.

It's a checks and balances deal. It gives the people more say into OUR government.

---------- Post added at 01:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:23 PM ----------

I find the article very right on. And it is very interesting that CNN is starting to even question Obama.

He brought up great points:

Why does Wall Street go down when Geithner brings about what is supposed to bring good news.

Then the Obama people say it's Wall Street and they are part of the problem until Wall Street does something they like... but then who truly does profit if the market goes up when the sell of toxic investments is what bounces it up?

The writer is right in his implication that we cannot have it both ways. His best point is this:

But he needs to also ask why Obama won't tell us. We know about the AIG bonuses what else is in there that makes Wall Street smile so much? And if they are part of the problem and they are smiling then it's not a good thing for the people.

Who told Dodd to put in the language.. we do know Obama's people knew about it and said nothing until it leaked and the people got mad about it.

I find this more of a criticism of Geithner than Obama. But it is a swipe at Obama and I think it is just the beginning.

BTW.... while politics and economics bring about heated debate and passion, they are necessary evils to pay attention to because they do affect everyone's life. I'm not suggesting you have to read books or make it your life.... I would prefer you didn't it'll drive you batty but learn what you can so that you know how much they affect you.

I thank you for starting one of the best political posts that have been here in a very long time. I think you are more aware than you let on.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"