The presidency is not the only problem of course, just the biggest. The fact is nearly all "our" representatives, placed in positions of trust and responsibility, soon find it hard to serve the people's interests while, at the same time, protecting their political career and future high-paid lobbyist ambitions. This inherent conflict-of-interest, generated by the process of reelection, is massive and has not only completely corrupted the legislative process but is threatening our very future.
Re-election is truly the nexus point of corruption. So the vital premise of a one-term political fix has to do with the elimination of reelection, per se, as well as what some might call the inherent ego-cancer and civic mistake of even allowing politics to be a career.
Regardless of the office, every term of office is corrupted and poisoned by the possibility of another term. Every action of the re-electable politician is couched and carefully strategized for "damage control." At the very least, we don't get our money's worth of representation. However, the real damage from our reelection mania is far worse, and the fact that we countenance such ego-contamination in our political system is unfathomable.
Inevitably, our most urgent problems wind up being studied to death, and difficult decisions become secondary to candidates fundraising and image control. Yet legislators go about raising their pay, producing deficits, and getting reelected ad nauseum.
In short, we need to have our heads examined and our Constitution revised. Our serious economic and social problems are a direct and cumulative result of the way in which "we" supposedly choose our representatives, finance "their" campaigns, obtain access to "our" media, and how they invariably decide to reelect themselves.
Today, every legislator's reelection, regardless of how it is financed, is an invitation to avoid issues and action that may upset voters and various interest groups. In a reelection stacked and rigged government even our official statistics will be messaged, our science perverted, and a Supreme Court will postpone their ideological strikes for political reasons.
On the other hand, a one-term president or legislator cannot be paralyzed by the enticements and corrupting influence of another term. One-termers are free to act to solve deadly stalemates, to rejuvenate a moribund politics, and help attract our best and brightest people to the profession - now put off by the sheer sleaze of it all.
What the country needs now is a one-term, four or five year, presidency, and perhaps one-term, overlapping, four to eight year congressional and senate terms, with fourteen year Supreme court seats for starters. Our state and local governments can concoct their own versions of longer, single-term, arrangements as befit their own needs. The principle remains the same, but the presidency remains the most important place to start.
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