Yesterday I posted the image asking Who are you going to vote for in November? A number of the comments that were made proved my point very clearly, as I knew they would. The point was that the polarization of ideologies between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party has created both an environment in which incumbents are ensured a career in Congress and such a strong division among the people that neither side will work with the other and either side alone hasnt the power to overcome the corruption and dysfunction of our current government. When entering the voting booth, most would rather vote for an incumbent that they dont care for than to vote for the other partys nominee. This is the basis of the problem that we keep referring to as the broken voting system. An incumbent receives the name recognition votes. An incumbent, with 7 to 12 times the donations from corporations, receives the media exposure votes. And, with the polarized ideologies, an incumbent receives a huge number of Party Line Votes. An incumbent wins re-elections indefinitely, regardless of his/her performance. We the People have been trapped into a self-perpetuating, negative cycle that cannot be broken through the current voting system. Think about these statistics. Using the Senate as an example, 30 years ago there were 7 members who had been in Congress 20 years or longer. The two parties had an overlap of ideologies of 58%. This meant that over half of the time, the two parties were able to work together to resolve problems and make progress. Over the past 30 years the number of senior members in the Senate has about tripled to 20 members with over 20 years and many others very close. As the number of senior members has increased, the party ideologies have become more and more polarized until now there is ZERO percent overlap. Now there is NOTHING that they agree on and they have become completely dysfunctional and the worst Congress in history. THIS is the self-perpetuating, negative cycle. The more senior members in Congress, the more polarized the ideologies. The more polarized the ideologies, the stronger the chance of members being re-elected due to Party Line Votes. The cycle can NOT be broken without Term Limits. Term Limits guarantee that the excessive polarity of ideologies resulting from seniority is broken. Term Limits guarantee that EVERY member of Congress has EQUAL authority due to equal seniority. Term Limits guarantee that new faces show on the ballot so that name recognition does not play such a significant role. Term Limits guarantees that at the very longest, every 12 years there will not be an incumbent with huge campaign contributions from corporations, buying the media exposure votes. Term Limits for the US Congress is the ONLY answer that overcomes ALL THREE of the issues that guarantee an Incumbents re-election! I realize that people dont take the time to read much, but this is the type of information that we need to get in front of the eyes of EVERY American. It is too extensive to try to throw on an image with a couple of words. It is up to each of YOU to SHARE this information and ask everyone you know to share it as well. Thank you to all of you that have joined us. We are setting a precedent here by focusing on this singular, non-partisan issue. Together we CAN change the course of our nation. Sincerely, Bob Reid National Director Term Limits for US Congress
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:50:12 +0000