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Proof-Variation7005 t1_itvo67m wrote

Reply to comment by misterspokes in Young voters are so important by mooscaretaker

>Term Limits tend to be well-meaning but bad for government as a whole as you end up with an entire support structure of staffers and such that constantly know more about the inner workings of the policy levers than the cycling elected officials, forming a shadow government.

There are not enough upvotes in the world for how dead accurate this is. Every time I see a politician/pundit/person I like and respect be on board with term limits, a part of my soul dies. It's the ultimate "nice idea unless you think about about it" idea that solves nothing and makes existing problems even worse.

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misterspokes t1_itvqp38 wrote

It "works" in the Executive because the entire job is managing a legacy bureaucracy and most of the people who get into the position have met and interacted with most of the ones that can't easily be replaced.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_itvw791 wrote

I'd almost argue that it's not even great in the executive branch. It was an overcorrection from a wildly popular president that couldn't be unseated until he died in office and a wildly unpopular vice president took over.

To me, it's just inherently undemocratic to automatically disqualify a choice that might be the most popular one. I could see the logic a little better for a governor but for the U.S. Presidency, most people would not even want to keep going after 2 full terms. Maybe if you had the double-whammy of a world war and a great depression again, I could see someone not wanting to abandon ship in crisis, but that job would burn most people out.

If you look at the 2 term presidents after FDR, none of them even would've tried to go for a 3rd term if the option was there. It's a self correcting problem federally because that job has stress factors none of us can imagine.

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misterspokes t1_itvws61 wrote

Indeed, but it's still acceptable in the position. Expanding the house and instituting rotating benches in the Federal Court system would go a long way in fixing the things we claim we want term limits for.

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