I keep reading this “vote them all out” rant and I disagree.
For instance, my house rep is absolutely the most conservative intelligent person anyone could wish for.
In an adjacent district is another really great conservative who has been in office for probably 30 years.
There are many others, some in my state and many in other states.
Voting them out would be the classic case of cutting off your nose to spite your face....
Or as the old timers put it, pissing in your own well. If you can't sort out who the good guys are from the bad guys, do the rest of us a favor and stay home on election day. You will do more harm than good.
While I agree with you in principle, and I too, have a conservative rep (a first termer in congress) I want to say the following.
Our founding fathers never intended to have people be career politicians. The just assumed, and with the quality and heart of the men involved, rightly assumed, that people would take turns going up on the hill to serve. They would run for election once or twice, and then bow out to continue in the private sector, thereby doing their duty to their country and moving on, and another person would step up and do theirs.
While I appreciate a great conservative on the hill, the overwhelming clamor for people, (at least the many I have seen/heard at rallys and protests) are clamoring for term limits. Due to the fact that politics has become a “career” for many, even the best people can lose sight of why they are there, as their power and influence grows.
The founders did not have lobbyists throwing money hand over foot at them, they went up to make the best decisions for the country, not them. While I respect a great many men and women on the hill, I am quite sure if we had term limits, many new and fresh thinking, uninfluenced people would be willing to step forward and serve. Right now, it is virtually impossible to unseat an incumbent, it practically takes a revolt like the one we are seeing to do so. This is why I said what I said. I can tell a good one from a bad one, and it is the rare day that I have cast a vote for one who should not be there. This is not the case for the majority of the country, as evidenced by our current administration.
You are correct, there will be casualties. But not if we can get term limits. It will actually bring good solid conservative candidates out of the wood work because they KNOW the incumbent can, and will be out after a second or perhaps third term ( I believe at least 3 terms for congress, 2 for senators).
It truly is hard to know exactly what to do. I feel it is better for my country to have term limits to limit the damage done by the likes of Reid, Pelosi, Kennedy, Frank, and on and on, however, I feel for the people who do have great representation in their district. That being said, you are the rare district, not the rule, and thusly, it is in the country’s best interest that we trust you to elect another great rep as you have proven you can do, while FORCING others to do the same through term limits. I do appreciate you presenting your views, they are well thought out and intellegent, and I only wish more people thought AND voted as you do! Thanks!