Good points but I still think it’s both. If you’re in office and at the retirement age, then you need to retire from office once your term is up. You still want to work? Then go find a job elsewhere.
Stopping safe districts? What's the problem you see? That incumbents face no opposition -- from opposition party, or from within their own? If the former, real solution is redrawing districts, not just swapping nameplates.
When they fear primaries instead, they play safe, or tend towards extremes.
In Arizona, we have an independent districting commission. It works ok, but far from perfect. We still get districts like Andy Biggs in SE Arizona, ultra conservative, compact, where he'll never face a primary challenge.
Grijalva's runs half of Tucson, west to Yuma. Half is a bombing range!
Democrats tend to play it safe believing it will make them primary-proof. Those that stick their necks out, tend to get decapitated. Republicans, OTOH, tend to extremes. 2 sides of the same coin -- incumbents want to lock down the money and base primary voters, who look very different in 2 parties.
Better than term limits would be public financing of campaigns -- makes incumbents more vulnerable -- but that requires public money, which requires tax hikes.
Ummm…even if Democrats somehow regain the trifecta and can pass meaningful reforms, not getting past SCOTUS in the next 30-50 years unless conservative justices have some tragic collective accident
Make full medical exams, including mental evaluations, done by impartial doctors, required for all public servants, whether elected or appointed. Treat it as a job requirement. We don't want surprises. Trump sounds demented much of the time, yet he gives 341 million Americans (his boss) the finger.
I agree age limits, like we have to retire at 65. Maybe 75 for Congress and the President would be long enough. It might be a challenge to work out though.
It's time to look beyond age-related problems and see our problems are all mental illness/sanity problems.
Not only our elected government representatives of all stripes, but our judges, candidates and other powerful people, should all have some form of psychiatric testing to remove psychopaths.
Both. We also need a rigorous background check process that does not allow Felons to be President. I work for a City municipality and Trump would not be able to get a job there. He can't own a gun. He can't vote. Yet he can be President. The Founding Fathers had no clue how effed this would get.
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When they fear primaries instead, they play safe, or tend towards extremes.
Grijalva's runs half of Tucson, west to Yuma. Half is a bombing range!
What we have now is not working for anyone but politicians and lobbyists.
Not only our elected government representatives of all stripes, but our judges, candidates and other powerful people, should all have some form of psychiatric testing to remove psychopaths.
Some spend so much time in the job they not only get to know the system, they learn to play & profit from it. ergo: term limits.