Term limits keep politicians honest
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Our founding fathers did not contemplate federal government as a career for politicians. They anticipated that citizens would leave their plow shares, their businesses and professions for a short time to serve the nation, and then return to their previous occupations. Unfortunately, a vast majority of our legislators have made politics their careers, resulting in our current national dilemma. About twenty years ago, at a national contractor’s convention, the key note speaker was Lee Sherman Dreyfus, a nationally renowned motivational speaker. He urged each of us to play a limited role in our local government by serving one term in some capacity of interest to us. Lee was formerly head of the Wisconsin State University system, much like our SUNY system, and very popular among all the citizens of Wisconsin, who urged him to run for Governor. He agreed with the proviso that he would serve only one term. At the end of his term, he was urged by his constituents to run for a second term. As a man of his word, he declined. One of his close friends asked him the real reason he wouldn’t run again. He replied, that when he returned to his farm in Upstate Wisconsin, he sat on the front porch and looked across the road at the field and said it was such a treat to see a whole horse for a change. That says it all, and is still true today. Without naming some of the corrupt and incompetent legislators that still hold office, it is close to the time when we must consider that the baby be thrown out with the bath water. Term limits, in my mind, have become imperative. After two terms, one should be required to take at least a two term sabbatical before running for office again to avoid the stagnation and entrenchment of those who are intent on making politics their lifelong career, and require them to earn a living like the rest us without all the perks enjoyed only by legislators and not the working public. Don McKay
Richfield Springs
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