I can honestly think of only one Senator in my lifetime, who successfully resisted the siren call of the Beltway and that was Jesse Helms.
The rest have succumbed, as far as I can tell. They become convinced that legislation and regulation, more and more of it, is what the country really needs, in order to “move forward.” It becomes the measure of their worth to them, what bills they’s co-sponsored and their relationships with colleagues.
The fact that their constituents back home would rather just be left alone by a much smaller government is forgotten and then scorned, as it begins to sound petty and small in light of the sweeping grandeur and largesse they’ve long since accustomed themselves to dispensing.
The solution is to just not allow them to stay in the Senate long enough to fall prey.
37 years is a long time. Send him home to a happy retirement.
Jesse was one of a kind and the only one who ever got better the longer he stayed in Washington.
Nobody did more to keep America free in the last century except for the great Ronald Reagan himself.
I pray to God that he will give us more leaders like Jesse and RR.