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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   Edited 1yr ago   34428 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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The current top comment on the /r/politics post on this is:

“Trump just vowed to push for term limits for members of Congress and a lifetime ban on lobbying for former lawmakers, both of which were promises from his 2016 race — and both of which his White House never sought to adopt in any of the four years he was president.” - NYT

(Post did not include a link to NYT, but here is the source from an article titled "Trump Announces 2024 Run, Repeating Lies and Exaggerating Record".)

I pretty much agree. I wasn't happy about Trump being elected but at first I was hoping there may be some silver lining in him actually being serious in his claims to care about corruption. But that hopefulness didn't last long. (Also, I'm not entirely sold on term limits; I think looking at other structural reasons for incumbency like first-past-the-post elections making it difficult to run an ideologically similar campaign is probably a better idea.)

Trump just vowed to push for term limits for members of Congress

This can only be practical if combined with term limits for all federal employees of similar timescales. Else what you end up with is a Congress in Eternal September, newbie Senators being lead around by lifetime bureaucrats and Generals (but I repeat myself) who have been in DC for decades and know the scores. Term limits for politicians is a massive power grab for the federal bureaucracy.

So, if anything, it would only entrench the "Deep State"?

Yes. Congresspeople would be reduced to tourists still trying to find the bathrooms by the time their terms end and they move back to Iowa. They'd still be learning how castling works when the bureaucrats are setting traps in every law and regulation and procedure.

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