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by: JoshSkandar
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There is a chronic problem with politics. It's the power of the incumbent. Once someone is elected to office, the chances of the candidate being unseated by a challenger decreases with each successful reelection. The consensus is, that this often leads to complacency, to laziness, and even to graft.

So an increasing number of states have instituted term limits: so many terms in office, and you can't stand for reelection. Recurrent efforts at instituting these limits at the Federal level have failed, with the exception of the Oval Office. After FDR, presidents have been limited to two terms.

Some of the pundits are very concerned about this movement. The conservative thinker Burke argued that politics is a skill like any other. Just as you would not want an inexperienced surgeon operating on you or your family, so you would not want a novice elected official deciding on far-reaching laws and policy. Every newly elected official will say that the job is far more complicated than they imagine, and that most of the first first term is consumed by simply 'learning the ropes'. Real mastery of the process can take a decade or more.

Louisiana is one of the states to have chosen to limit the years that elected officials may serve. This has caused a re-shuffling of anyone and everyone with long-term experience, and a lot of our hardest working representatives have lost elections, or have simply chosen to leave public service. So it appears that the only real experience left among the elected personnel, may be the UN-elected personnel, the bureaucrats and the hired representatives of special interest groups. Not exactly an improvement, that.

There is a second problem in the political landscape, however: left vs right, republican vs. democrat. It seems that everyone is trying so hard to win out over the other side, that no one is interested win-win solutions. Beating the opponent has become more important than serving the majority. In the nasty fighting over bragging rights, it seems that the cooperative American spirit has been completely lost.

So here's a suggestion that might address both problems: Extendable Term Limits. When a candidate reaches the end of standard term limits, he/she may run again-- IF a consensus (private) vote of the body in which the candidate serves permits it. The first post-limit try, the candidate needs a simple majority. But every election after that, the required consensus increases by 3%. So first post-limit permission requires more than 50% of the concerned house; next time, more than 53%; then 56%, and so on.

For the head of state, perhaps permission from both bodies would be required, based on the same concept.

Net effect? Increased leadership and collaboration, decreased politics and partisanship. Every freshman representative will be confronted with a long-range choice. Play hardball, take your three strikes, and leave the arena. Or, completely abandon the sports mentality, where 'win-win' does not exist, and begin collaborating; begin LEADING.

And the politicians who prefer ugly games will find themselves out of office, but quick. They will serve their terms, and be gone.

Only those elected officials who show true leadership, those who reach across the aisle, those who build consensus, those who focus on agreement, not acrimony-- those will be the people will move into increasing positions of power. And the number of their terms will directly correlate with the vision and skill they bring to the job.

About the Author

Josh Skandar writes for booksXYZ.com, the non-profit bookstore listing over 3,000,000 books. Currently he is recommending Accordions, Fiddles, Two-Step, & Swing: A Cajun Music Reader, a compilation of the best material ever written on Cajun music.

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