I've never been eager to embrace term limits. It seems to me that if nobody in the legislature has long-term experience, then the bills are going to be even more driven by lobbyists (who, of course, would not be term-limited themselves). My other main concern is that if you knew that you were about to be out of a job, then you might wind up more beholden than usual to an industry that you thought might give you a job when your Senate term was up. Or, if you thought that you had a chance to parlay your fame and run for governor or attorney general or something like that, then you're pandering to the voters of the entire state, national-level fundraisers, and the like. The only people without leverage are your actual constituents back home, which is the opposite of the way it should be, I think.
The sorts of reform that I would prefer are things that remove the amazing incentives of preserving incumbency. I think that there should be no hierarchy in committee posts in legislatures, so that Challenger Newbie would have as much influence as Senator Lifetime were she to be elected. I can't bring myself to be fully opposed to earmarks, but we've got to find a way to stop their use as bribes paid by legislators to non-profit groups in exchange for endorsements. This is particularly odd in New York which just gives every legislator a few million dollars for member items to be spread around their community as they see fit instead of even making them place specific earmarks in the budget. These are deals that are cut behind closed doors, and I have no reason to trust that they are done in good faith. Even if they were, they are another example of a perk that a challenger can not claim even though they would be similarly generous with their own pot of money if they were elected.
If I had to propose a plan that was achievable and better than what we have now, it would be to have a pre-primary that would be a referendum on whether we wanted to keep the incumbent in office. If she gets over 50%, there is no election for that post. If not, then we have an election in which she is barred from running. That way, at least you don't have to fight the inequity of pitting an incumbent against a non-incumbent when what you really want to do is to have the incumbent running purely against her record.
Someday I should write up my wholly unachievable plan for instituting nigh-direct democracy in the Internet Age. It's revolutionary, but has a lot of interesting features that challenge a lot of minor irritants in the current schemes of democratic republic.
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Date: 2009-12-08 12:11 pm (UTC)The sorts of reform that I would prefer are things that remove the amazing incentives of preserving incumbency. I think that there should be no hierarchy in committee posts in legislatures, so that Challenger Newbie would have as much influence as Senator Lifetime were she to be elected. I can't bring myself to be fully opposed to earmarks, but we've got to find a way to stop their use as bribes paid by legislators to non-profit groups in exchange for endorsements. This is particularly odd in New York which just gives every legislator a few million dollars for member items to be spread around their community as they see fit instead of even making them place specific earmarks in the budget. These are deals that are cut behind closed doors, and I have no reason to trust that they are done in good faith. Even if they were, they are another example of a perk that a challenger can not claim even though they would be similarly generous with their own pot of money if they were elected.
If I had to propose a plan that was achievable and better than what we have now, it would be to have a pre-primary that would be a referendum on whether we wanted to keep the incumbent in office. If she gets over 50%, there is no election for that post. If not, then we have an election in which she is barred from running. That way, at least you don't have to fight the inequity of pitting an incumbent against a non-incumbent when what you really want to do is to have the incumbent running purely against her record.
Someday I should write up my wholly unachievable plan for instituting nigh-direct democracy in the Internet Age. It's revolutionary, but has a lot of interesting features that challenge a lot of minor irritants in the current schemes of democratic republic.