by Russell Roper

Created on: May 26, 2010

So many Americans continually call for Congressional term limits. The idea being, if the politicians are limited in the number of terms they will be allowed to hold office they would perform their jobs better. Well America, for those of you unaware, term limits have been in place for many, many years.

These limits take place every two, four, and six years – It is called Voting. If a particular politician is not performing their duties to the satisfaction of their constituents then they should not be re-elected. However, this is the responsibility of the American voter to make happen.

Unfortunately, the voter, or eligible voter to be more specific, fails dramatically in keeping up with their responsibility in the process. How often have you heard someone say; “I don’t vote, because it doesn’t mean anything”, or “I was just too busy to get to the polls”?

Yet, these same people are the first to voice their dissatisfaction with the way a politician is performing the job and that they should be kicked out of office.

The entire voting process is meant to allow individuals to voice their opinion as to who they want in, or out, office. Remember, this is America; no one is going to prevent an individual from voting. There will also be no one forcing that person into a voting booth to cast a vote. It is up to each voter to make their own decision and act on it.

So, realistically, if each man and woman of legal voting age decides their elected official is not worthy of their position they would not cast their vote for them, thus ending that politicians term.

It is, however, not that they cannot vote out an incumbent, but rather they simply want to leave the responsibility to someone else.

By calling for term limits to be imposed the individual American voter is released from making the decision. They simply feel that they do not need to take any action because the official can only hold office for so long.

Another reason for their laziness is the American peoples over reliance on the government to make their decisions for them. It seems ridiculous to leave the decision concerning limiting their political career to the very person the limits will affect.

Therefore, in closing, term limits imposed by any other means than the individual vote is shear laziness. The voter has not fully thought term limits through either. If they had considered all of the facts they would realize that term limits would not only remove bad representatives, but those doing a good job also

Learn more about this author, Russell Roper.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.