Term Limitless

Against term limits.

Welcome back to The Burnett Breakdown. Subscribe if you haven’t already and feel free to share with anyone who may enjoy it.

Longevity

Why do people like Mike Krzyzewski, the longtime head coach for Duke Basketball, receive admiration upon retiring? Would you rather your new boss be someone who has worked at the company for decades or job-hopped for decades? As a new employee, would you ask a fellow newcomer for assistance or someone who has been there for a long time? Do you think a 30-year teacher is more competent than a first-year teacher?

There is something about longevity that we appreciate. The longer somebody is at a job or at a particular company, the more competency we believe they have. If somebody has stuck around for a long time, then they have to be doing something right. If somebody was consistently underperforming or incompetent, then they would surely have been fired. While this isn’t universally true, this is typically a pretty solid criterion for measuring competency without in-depth personal experience.

It’s also true that people become more competent over time as they gain more experience. A first-year teacher has never taught before and has no idea what to expect (I can attest, having been one relatively recently). Over time, that teacher will gain more experience and grow in their ability to teach, which makes them more competent in year 10 than in year 1. “Practice makes perfect” is a cliche because it’s largely true.

We recognize this reality all across the board in our world except for one important arena: politics. Does any phrase bring with it more baggage than “lifelong politician?” This phrase is constantly used in political ads as a slur with the underlying assumption that lifelong politicians deserve to lose. A politician with 30 years of experience in Congress? Part of the dreaded establishment swamp that needs to be taken down. A “politician” with no experience in politics but really gets the people going? The future face of the party and an inspiration.

This is particularly true in our current populist moment which is why the idea of term limits has been gaining more traction in recent years. Term limits would put an end to the lifelong politician by preventing a politician from being elected again after serving a set number of terms (a set number that would have to be agreed upon). While this is already the case for many governors, presidents, and other executive branch positions, the call has been growing to apply them to those in the legislative branch as well.

I don’t think the call should be heeded.

No Term Limits

Lifelong politicians are not inherently bad things that need to be ended. Being an effective politician takes experience and know-how just like any other job, not to mention the relationship-building required to come to compromises and agreements. The youthful, inexperienced maverick that goes to Congress to “shakes things up” is typically really ineffective at actually getting anything passed. They may get a lot of cable television air time, but that does not translate to real legislation passed.

It turns out that learning the ropes of how Congress operates on a day-to-day basis and then knowing how to effectively use the means necessary to pass legislation takes time. I have all sorts of ideas about what bills I believe should be passed, but if I were elected to Congress today I would not have the first clue about how to make that happen.

How do I propose a bill? Will there be a debate over it? Who do I get to sign it if I don’t know anybody? What if people agree with a large portion of my bill but want to add or take out parts? Do I personally write the bill? What committee does the bill originate in?

These are just a few questions that those outside of Congress don’t have to worry about, but those in Congress must know if they want to get anything done. It takes time just to find out the answer to these questions which doesn’t even take into account the time necessary to learn how to effectively navigate it all.

All the while, there have to be leaders within Congress that help guide parties and unify coalitions without making members irredeemably mad. These leaders require even more experiential knowledge than the average Congressperson. Without experienced leaders guiding members, Congress would become even more of a zoo than it already is.

In America, we like to think that anyone can be a politician. That’s true only in that anyone can run for office, but that is drastically different than being a politician, especially an effective politician. A successful CEO of a Fortune 500 company has developed unique abilities through years of experience that equip them to lead such an organization. Likewise, lifelong politicians have developed unique abilities through years of experience that equip them to be successful politicians.

Of course, this assumes that we want politicians that are actually effective at crafting legislation and not people to go to Washington D. C. simply to do theatrics that make the right people angry. In recent years, it hasn’t been so clear which Americans prefer.

Plus, I think legislative term limits are not necessary. There is a misconception that politicians that serve for several decades like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Grassley are the norm and not the anomaly. This is indeed a misconception. According to the Congressional Research Service, the average tenure for a representative in the current Congress is 8.5 years and the average tenure for a senator is 11.2 years. Granted, the average tenure time has gone up over time, but that is probably a product of people living longer in general.

Not to mention, the baby boomer generation has a lot to do with politicians staying in Congress for decades. Due to their sheer size, baby boomers have had an outsized influence on politics since they came of age in the 1960s and 1970s. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this generation has maintained a grip on political offices since this time as well.

Finally, there is already a mechanism to get rid of legislators that are not serving the interests of their constituencies: elections. Every two or six years, politicians must convince voters to vote for them regardless of how long they have already served. Every time they win an election it is an acknowledgment that those politicians are representing their constituencies well enough to continue serving.

God Bless,

Hunter Burnett