From Frederick News Post

It may be time for the debate to begin once again on term limits for our members of Congress.

What has become painfully apparent is that the check voters provide each election year — i.e., voting the bums in or out — is no longer adequate. The system is broken and stacked against voters, who are demoralized by the extremes of both parties and dropping party affiliation in droves to join the ocean of the disenfranchised.

Approval ratings for Congress, never high to begin with, are at an all-time low.

According to a recent Gallup poll, eight in 10 Americans think that the job our representatives and senators are doing, to be frank, stinks.

Gridlock and indecision, political haymaking and partisanship have rendered our representation impotent. Both parties share the blame, and there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Men and women of conviction have been ground under the heel of party groupthink.

The wiles of power have become just too appealing. The seniority system on Capitol Hill is partly to blame, whereby the longer in office, the more power is accrued (seemingly absent of real ability or ethical standards, in many cases). Detachment from real life is almost inevitable.

This entrenchment stifles new ideas. Career politicians become more and more beholden to the monied interests that put them in office. Campaigning — and the party posturing that comes with it — becomes relentless.

Our political ancestors, with their mistrust of political power, would cast shame on today’s system of governance. They eagerly engaged in and supported rotation in office. Unfortunately, in one of their few oversights, they didn’t write that into the Constitution.

Lawmakers were never supposed to see their life in public office as a career, but as the culmination of a successful life, a time to dispense the wisdom and perspective gained from years spent out in the real world.

So we’re suggesting that our representatives in Congress be time-limited. One term of six years for a senator, three terms of two years for a House member. After a reasonable period — say, six years –they should be free to run again.

How much more effective would our lawmakers be, especially late in their political careers, if freed by the looming deadline to vote their conscience, instead of the position they believe will best fill their coffers with campaign funds, or deliver punched chads at the ballot box?

The problem of stagnation and partisanship in Washington could be solved in one fell swoop.

Of course, this is all a pipe dream. The foxes guard the henhouse. What cozily nested politician is going to willingly vote for an end to his or her time in a comfortable leather House or Senate chair?

Probably not a one.