Congressional Term Limits - Essay Example

Reaction Paper: Congressional Term Limits Affiliation with more information about affiliation,research grants, conflict of interest and how to contact Reaction Paper: Congressional Term Limits In the first paragraph, you state that term limits ensure that Congress can be more representative of the present generation. Why assume that? Term limits dont guarantee younger candidates. Term limits, in the words of Latz, will “return real choices and competition between candidates,” thus the voters can elect who they want (1991, p. 157). It is true that the term limits may not guarantee younger candidate, however, term limits gives more choices to voters.

It is then the voters that elect a particular candidate, thus when the present generation gets to elect members of the congress, it will be more representative of them, since it is their choice. Thus, it can be said that term limits will enable the congress to be more representative. In a conservative, rural Republican district, term limits could force the retirement of a white male conservative Republican, but why assume that the new person will be any different (another white male conservative Republican) or vote any differently.

So you need to explain why you think this argument for term limits is valid. It is indeed in the hands of the voters to elect the new candidate, thus they need to carefully study and understand their respective candidates before voting for them. Through the various campaigning and other public talks that have been given by the respective new candidates, the voters can understand whether the candidate they are going to elect will be just another white male conservative Republican or not. It is true that the American citizens need to be more active regarding the political sphere, that is try to understand more about the candidates before taking any decision.

In case if the present person turns out to be just another white male conservative Republican, the term limit will ensure that he does not stay for long, and the voters can elect a candidate who is more than just a white male conservative Republican. This is exactly why there should be term limits. Veteran lawmakers in Congress still have to run every two years. Why is this not enough to ensure that they are sensitive to the needs of their constituents? Veteran lawmakers in Congress have to face re-election every two years and sometimes these two years are not enough to show that they are sensitive to the needs of their constituents.

For any change to be implemented, it takes a long and arduous process. First proper planning needs to be done, a proper analysis should be done, things needs to be organized accordingly, various elements need to be controlled etc. There are a lot of processes that come into play when implementing a change. Thus sometimes two years is not enough to show to the voters that they are bringing in a change, thus it is hard to show them that the veterans are sensitive to their needs. How do you respond to someone who says that American democracy ALREADY does all the things that Latz wants through the election process?

I will give examples of things that still need to be changed in the US, improvements that need to be brought and I will tell them that keeping a conservative mind would not get our country to overcome such problems. Every state has its own problems and these have existed since a long time now. In order to solve them, there needs to be fresh and new blood on the congress team so that new ideas and out of the box thinking can be incorporated into the law making process. Reference Latz, Martin. (1991). The Constitutionality of State-passed Congressional Term Limits.

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