Simply Crusading

Every now and then a reform idea comes along so simple in construct and fundamental in its appeal, it catches on with the fervor of a religious revival. Prohibition remains the most notorious example. With too many people drinking too much, corrupting the moral fiber of the great American family, why bother to think more than one move ahead or consider the causes rather than effects? Why not simply ban the sale of booze? From protective tariffs to school prayer, we'll always be enticed with simple, seductive, and wrongheaded solutions to complex problems.

Term limits is just such a fantastically simple but wrongheaded idea. Too many politicians too comfortable, too ensconced, too out of touch? Simply cap the number of terms allowed. We'll be freed of cobwebbed, professional politicians and in the thoughtful care of yeoman philosophers who will do their duty pure of heart and sensibly retire to the bosom of their communities. Problem solved. Leading proponents of this high school-civics catechism claim to have the support of four out of five Americans, and while both leaders and followers may be well-intentionally sincere, they're as far off track as Anti-Saloon Leaguers.

What term-limit spokesmen don't say is that nearly four out of five Americans think the problem lies in the other guys' politicians, not the home boy. Otherwise, Congress would be a veritable revolving door. Your guys are unabashed, favor-lapping pigs at the public trough. Our guy is a hard-working, conscientious public servant. That's the reality of term-limit support reflected in polls, and if proponents did not manipulate surveys with imprecise wording, mass democratic support now so speciously evident might evaporate.

And democratic is precisely what term limits are not. If in a representative democracy voters wish to send a three-eyed troglodyte to Washington every two or six years, it is not a shocking conclusion that that should be their option to exercise - an option that should exist in the realm of the presidency, for that matter. Personally, the only prospect more distasteful of a Ronald Reagan serving two terms in the White House is a Ronald Reagan serving three terms in the White House. Yet, should that not be a decision for the entire nation of voters?

Progress in invigorating our national pool of politicians dwells not in arbitrarily limiting terms, but circumscribing unfair incumbent advantages inherent in campaign finance laws. The benefits of campaign finance reform are well enough advertised to be unnecessary to reiterate here; suffice it to say the achievement of these benefits remains the tough job ahead.

Parenthetically, a handful of Republican Congressmen are being pilloried this election

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