they should earn immunity from term limits by being active in committee work and voting. Those that sleep through sessions should get limited

In all honesty it's a pretty bad idea all the way around. The one pro is that you can theoretically get more "fresh faces" into Congress, but we're not actually electing that many new faces anyway when we get our opportunities. You're starting to see real diversity in the Democratic House districts, which look like what the country is expected to look like by 2045, but the country is still overwhelmingly electing males, who are white, and who are Christian, and who most-significantly are the only people who can afford to compete in multi-million dollar campaigns. Until we get the shadow money out of politics we're not going to be truly getting fresh faces anyway so there's no real benefit to this.

It comes with two deal-breaking drawbacks: it gets rid of the two most important things, seniority and personal relationships that have been molded over the long-term, that allow the Senate to miraculously outpace the House in passing large-scale legislation when it was deliberately designed to move slower.

Here in Canada , there is no term limit for Senators, they are appointed for life.

Some good , some bad with that. Its kinda like being a Judge in America.

A good thing is that their vetted for a lifetime of work - where as the people we vote for, can be relatively new to the Political scene.

Also they can't be bought off by some Cooperation with "Political Donations"

Probably a bad thing when they get older , but sometimes change is not always the best action.

This post was edited by card_sultan on Jan 19 2015 03:39pm

Ding ding ding ding ding

Having qualified legislators with experience and personal connections is important.

We don't need more populaism, we need less. I'd like to see state legislators elect their senators again.

This, but I actually don't have an issue with it. Why? Because WEEEEEE can fucking elect them in or out.

If they suck, do your research, vote, and get them out. Problem solved.

People are idiots though and research cars and videogames more than they do politicians.

The entrance fee to elections is too high for anybody who isn't bought and paid for to run for office.

Citizens United makes this much worse.

The way to go forward would be to eliminate private money in elections altogether and actually elect candidates based on merit rather than war chests + connection to a political party.

Aye comrade.

yes to term limitations