Congressional Term Limits

    Congress now has an all time low rating in the minds of the American public. This seems inconsistent, because it is the American public which elects the Congress. However, it is the explainable when one considers that the election process involves a majority opinion of citizens. Many of the citizens are not knowledgeable of issues and vote on the basis of name recognition. Later, they recognize that the actions of the people they voted for have been inconsistent with their desires, which is then registered as a low Congressional rating.
    When a Congressperson spends the majority of his time and effort on developing name recognition for reelection, the country suffers because of Congressional inaction in accomplishing programs which are of benefit to the development of the country as a whole. In other words, Congresspersons relegate themselves to political hacks rather than statesmen.
    Related to the election process is also the matter of earmarks or pork for constituents. The local public generally sends its Congresspersons to Washington to obtain for it some government benefits. This is a natural consequence of human nature and all talk of eliminating earmarks or pork in general is really not appropriate. Pork is a strong basis on which a Congressperson arrives in Washington and stays there. However, pork is not a single entity to a single Congressperson. Pork is distributed among Congresspersons based on negotiation. It is the president's responsibility to see that the total pork bill is within reasonable limits of the federal budget.
    Considering the negative influences of Congresspersons' concentrations to retaining their jobs indefinitely and excessive total pork, some obvious changes would be desirable.
    The first change should be to modify the Congressperson's attitude toward more statesmanlike activities for the country rather than concentrate on reelection. This would involve term limits, which have been previously suggested, but never making any progress, because it is equivalent to asking the fox to deny himself entrance to the chicken house. However, it could be done by a group of citizens introducing the subject as part of the reelection process. For example, a question to be asked to a Congressperson running for reelection would be whether he would vote for term limits. If he replied negatively, he would not obtain the support of the group for reelection. Additionally, there are some older Congresspersons, who would like to retire with some legacy toward statesmanship and would independently support term limits. Perhaps these could lead the charge.