Every four years we hear calls for “term limits” and yet nothing ever changed. So, why is that the reality? There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prevents limits from being established for all elected officials; however, the process of making changes makes it next to impossible. Bills have been introduced in the House of Representatives on multiple occasions and some have passed with over 50% approval. So, the process requires the bill to be initiated and passed in the House, and then it must be approved by the Senate to be sent to the President for his signature before it can become a federal law. To be passed by the Senate requires 67 out of the 100 Senators to vote yes; otherwise, it fails. If it were to pass both the House and Senate, if the current President vetoed the Bill, it would require a two-thirds vote to override the President’s veto. It is not a new problem, but it was never planned to be a problem from this country’s beginning.
During the forming of our government, those involved in our representative system were volunteers who gave a few years of their time to go a speak for their neighbors. There were no incentives for anyone to make government a lifetime career, so the task was shared among honorable men of the community. I do not believe any of the founders would have ever expected what we have today. The truth is that it is the voters to blame for what we have, and we could fix it without any changes in our laws. Every two years, every House Representative must stand for election. That is required by law; however, we keep electing the same people based on party affiliations regardless of whether they do anything for their voters. That is how many of them make connections with businesses involved with government contracts and become very wealthy.
That is the reality, and it is not likely to change without a major victory by a large number of people who will fight for real change in DC. It requires draining the swamp with Congress and those lifelong bureaucrats that effectively run the Federal Government without ever getting elected. Having said all the “why it will not happen”, here are a few ideas of how I think it should work if I could just make the changes.
Election Rules:
Election Day – all voting to be conducted on the same 24-hour day starting at the same moment regardless of time zones around the world. That day would be a national holiday and the voting locations would be opened and staffed for 24 hours so the vast majority would be able to vote at some time.
Election Method – all votes must be cast in person with a valid photo ID that would be acceptable for all other businesses, the voter must produce printed documents that provide a review of the selections by the voter before the ballot is recorded, and all ballots must be retained for six months in the grouping by the district as cast, there must be a process by which an individual ballot can be verified.
Valid Voter – all registered voters must be US Citizens with voting rights still valid, and each voter must be registered and living in their voting district on election day, registered voter list must be purged once a year of the reported deaths, and those that moved out of state or to another county or district. Voter register files must be compared to prevent the same person from registering in multiple locations.
Running for another office while holding an office or resigning from one office to run for another office – politicians who only return home to gather more election funds are not really representing their voters, they are listening to those providing money to their campaigns who may not even live in the same state. To run for any office, you must not be holding any elected office during the campaign period. If a Representative wants to run for the Senate, that person must be out of office when they file to run for the Senate seat and they cannot resign from the House to run for the Senate.
House of Representatives – The Term continues for two years and is elected by the registered voters currently living in their district; however, no person will be allowed to serve more than a total of six years in the House during their lifetime and each two-year term must be separated by two years.
Senate – The term continues as six years with the two seats for each state up for election in different years. Senators continue to be elected across the entire state with only current registered voters residing in that state. Only two terms are allowed in a lifetime; however, there must be at least two years between those terms requiring all campaigning to be done while not in office. If a Senator resigns while in office, they cannot run for another office during the remainder of their term with only one exception – if selected to be Vice President, and even then that Senator must resign to run as VP.
President – Term continues as four years and a limit of eight years total lifetime. Presential campaigns must be 100% Federal Funded and with restrictions on what is allowed. Campaigns are limited to 120 days with public debates and controls placed on free press in any media form.
Even a part of these ideas if they became laws would drastically change the political system to be more like what the founders had in mind.
