Thursday, February 18, 2010
Politicians never learn
Apparently what it takes to be a politician is total obliviousness to the world. A new article just came out:
Let us not forget to include Congress--both houses--in that disrespect as well. One of the very few failures of our Founding Fathers was NOT to put term limits in the Constitution. They could not imagine anyone wanting to be a career politician. We have them now and look at what they have done.
UPDATED: See caps "NOT" above. Thanks, Kevin, your comment made me catch the error.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 31,000 to 473,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That compared to market expectations for 430,000.Gee, so we didn't learn the last time that we had huge deficits and low interest rates. President (someday he might earn that title but I don't think so) Obama learned nothing from the Carter years. Actually he is probably going to go down as worse than Carter. What an honor--the worst President the US ever had.
Another report from the department showed prices paid at the farm and factory gate rose a faster than expected 1.4 percent from December after a 0.4 percent gain in December, as higher gasoline prices and unusually cold temperatures helped boost energy costs.
...
Fed officials, keeping an eye on how quickly the recovering economy absorbs the excess slack that built up during the recession, have said they are likely to keep interest rates extraordinarily low for "an extended period.
Let us not forget to include Congress--both houses--in that disrespect as well. One of the very few failures of our Founding Fathers was NOT to put term limits in the Constitution. They could not imagine anyone wanting to be a career politician. We have them now and look at what they have done.
UPDATED: See caps "NOT" above. Thanks, Kevin, your comment made me catch the error.
// posted by Bill @ 10:16 AM 
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Given the way I originally wrote the final paragraph, your comment is ambiguous. I made a correction. I assume you would then mean that term limits should be imposed.
Hi, Bill.
I kind of saw it the other way: my comment stated my own opinion clearly since I said "Down with term limits." Perhaps the "Hear, hear," had it been alone, would have been ambiguous, since it might not have been obvious just what I was cheering.
I had noticed the missing "NOT," but gave the sentence a charitable reading, and understood you to mean that the Founding Fathers had failed when they neglected to include term limits. I agree that the addition of the "NOT" makes your meaning clearer.
In any case, it was easy to deduce your position re: the Founding Fathers based on your political leaning: if a conservative is against big government, then he's probably against career politics because career politicians allow the legislative to calcify; conservatives would prefer for the political checkerboard to be shaken more often than it is: this allows for fresh ideas, new perspectives, and a government that has to be on its toes. By increasing the frequency of politicians' turnover through term limits, the rolling stone of government gathers no moss and becomes no more ponderous than it is.
Anyway, because I saw the ambiguity in the sentence as originally written, I deliberately added "Down with term limits" so as to make my own opinion clear. I think career politics is a liability to our political system. Whatever advantage it provides in terms of consistency over time is overshadowed by the greed, venality, and stultification it promotes.
So in the end, I think we're on the same page. Term limits would be a good thing, and probably should be enshrined in the Constitution. But at this point in our history, what legislator, of any stripe, would agitate for such an amendment?
(Whew. I hope I've understood you correctly.)
Kevin
I kind of saw it the other way: my comment stated my own opinion clearly since I said "Down with term limits." Perhaps the "Hear, hear," had it been alone, would have been ambiguous, since it might not have been obvious just what I was cheering.
I had noticed the missing "NOT," but gave the sentence a charitable reading, and understood you to mean that the Founding Fathers had failed when they neglected to include term limits. I agree that the addition of the "NOT" makes your meaning clearer.
In any case, it was easy to deduce your position re: the Founding Fathers based on your political leaning: if a conservative is against big government, then he's probably against career politics because career politicians allow the legislative to calcify; conservatives would prefer for the political checkerboard to be shaken more often than it is: this allows for fresh ideas, new perspectives, and a government that has to be on its toes. By increasing the frequency of politicians' turnover through term limits, the rolling stone of government gathers no moss and becomes no more ponderous than it is.
Anyway, because I saw the ambiguity in the sentence as originally written, I deliberately added "Down with term limits" so as to make my own opinion clear. I think career politics is a liability to our political system. Whatever advantage it provides in terms of consistency over time is overshadowed by the greed, venality, and stultification it promotes.
So in the end, I think we're on the same page. Term limits would be a good thing, and probably should be enshrined in the Constitution. But at this point in our history, what legislator, of any stripe, would agitate for such an amendment?
(Whew. I hope I've understood you correctly.)
Kevin
Kevin,
Yes, we are on the same page, and I agree that getting politicians to agree to term limits is a non-starter. The only way it would happen is via a voter revolt through the use of petitions and ballot measures.
Yes, we are on the same page, and I agree that getting politicians to agree to term limits is a non-starter. The only way it would happen is via a voter revolt through the use of petitions and ballot measures.
Being and old fashioned kind of guy, that does have a certain appeal as does stoning tax collectors.
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