Enact Term Limits for All Politicians

With the 2016 presidential election coming up soon, many Americans are refocusing their interest back to politics for the first time since the 2014 midterm elections. However, no matter what happens in these elections, not much will change since politicians in both parties get too comfortable in office and eventually get beholden to special interests.

In 1996 when Maine Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, ran for The United States Senate, she ran on a two term pledge. The two term pledge stated that she would only serve 2 terms or 12 years in office. Collins just won three terms to the Senate back in November. Some politicians like Robert Byrd and Arlen Specter died in office. The problem with this is that it is too easy to become cozy with lobbyists.

Consider New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer, who has been in offce since the 1990s. For his re-election campaign in 2010, Senator Schumer received over 1 million dollars from Wall Street firms. Lobbyists infiltrate our government and push politicians to write laws that benefit them, not us. Enacting term limits will end that once and for all.

President George Washington was asked to run for a third term, yet he refused, believing that two terms was enough. Even the Confederate States of America said in their Constitution that the president should only be in office for six years.

Our nation’s first President understood the need for term limits. When the Republicans ran in 1994 they proposed a “Contract with America,” and a major part of that contract was term limits for all politicians. If we want to save our democracy it is vital that we enact term limits.