The Double Edged Sword of Term Limits

[Haumana]

From what I hear, it’s all about the candidates’ fundraising ability. New congressmen are expected to spend most of the day in a phone bank begging for donations.

Not to mention the costs to sit on a board once they are elected.

[Xenophon]

Campaign finance reform needs to be the target, not term limits.

[Martin Hash]

From what I hear, it’s all about the candidates’ fundraising ability. New congressmen are expected to spend most of the day in a phone bank begging for donations.

Yep; the candidate’s role is to raise money for the Party. No one ever asks, or even wants to know, what the candidate’s position is on anything.

p.s. Does the hatred towards Trump start to make sense?

[clubgop]

Elections are won by whoever has the biggest constituency. So you have to belong to a large church, or some other dependable voting block. Your resume is immaterial.

Also, your imagination of what a campaign is like is nothing like the reality; you think it’s about the candidate but it’s really about the Party. Partys have a lot of expenses and make most of their money exploiting money out of naive, narcissistic, first-time candidates. The Party’s attach huge costs to the campaign which the candidate is expected to pay for: managers, voting software, organization efforts, offices, the list is long. It costs $100K for nothing, even before promotional costs. Nobody wins the 1st time they run, so the system embarrasses & bankrupts an endless stream of hopeful but futile once-and-outers.

I see a lot of Peter principle. Most ambitious able bodied/minded adults can make a good run for school board, town council. Do everything yourself or within a close circle. I see many a ten year school board or town council person have to cross that threshold and get decimated. That first time you have to go to the State Capitol in person to turn in your petition and then the state party has you interview some people to be your campaign manager. Reality, they are interviewing you. That few thousand you may have spent over the years becomes six figures within months.

[clubgop]

From what I hear, it’s all about the candidates’ fundraising ability. New congressmen are expected to spend most of the day in a phone bank begging for donations.

Yep; the candidate’s role is to raise money for the Party. No one ever asks, or even wants to know, what the candidate’s position is on anything.

p.s. Does the hatred towards Trump start to make sense?

Fucking Lincoln Project. Every fucking one of those slimeballs want a six figure job to do fuck all, maybe they'll write one good spicy attack ad but everything else is just them raising money from people you will pay back or most likely spending that money that in order to get any return on that investment will require more fundraising and spending. Trump didn't need all that so he interviewed them with no intention of hiring them. So they had no fancy six figure job this season like they had the previous campaigns so they could lose again.

[clubgop]

Campaign finance reform needs to be the target, not term limits.

Not unless you shred the 1st amendment.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Campaign finance reform needs to be the target, not term limits.

Not unless you shred the 1st amendment.

Are corporations people?

[Xenophon]

Ugh. Clubby's right. If you restrict campaign donations to a certain amount, it could be seen as a 1st amendment violation because corporations are considered legal persons.

Taking away that right from corporations would prevent business owners from running their business as they see fit. I sympathize with that point of view.

All of this crap makes my head hurt. Voting is the gayest thing you can do with your pants on.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Ugh. Clubby's right. If you restrict campaign donations to a certain amount, it could be seen as a 1st amendment violation because corporations are considered legal persons.

Taking away that right from corporations would prevent business owners from running their business as they see fit. I sympathize with that point of view.

All of this crap makes my head hurt. Voting is the gayest thing you can do with your pants on.

What does ‘running a business’ have to do with political donations? Unless we’re enshrining political payoffs (corruption) as a ‘fundamental right’?

[clubgop]

Campaign finance reform needs to be the target, not term limits.

Not unless you shred the 1st amendment.

Are corporations people?

Is the press?