{"id":1262,"date":"2002-02-04T22:41:50","date_gmt":"2002-02-05T03:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1262"},"modified":"2002-02-04T22:41:50","modified_gmt":"2002-02-05T03:41:50","slug":"setting_limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/02\/04\/setting_limits.html","title":{"rendered":"Setting limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state legislature of Idaho has overridden its local term limits law<\/a>, placed there by popular referendum. I say, huzzah.<\/p>\n

Term limits have always rubbed me the wrong way. They always seemed to me to be an admission of weakness in the voting population — “Stop me before I vote for the incumbant again!” They certainly make it easier to get rid of political duds, but they also punish decent leaders, too. They make neophyte officeholders more beholden to their unelected staff, who are the only ones left who understand how things work. They effectively rob the electorate of the ability to vote for — or against — whomever they choose.<\/p>\n

Do incumbants have an advantage? Certainly. They are better known, and have a built-in access to the media and to lobbying money. <\/p>\n

But the electorate can still make that choice — indeed, we have to assume they can make that choice, otherwise we concede that money and media actually run elections, that the People are simply sheep who will graze where directed. <\/p>\n

In which case term limits are kind of meaningless anyhow, and we might as well keep the devils we know than bring in new devils we don’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state legislature of Idaho has overridden its local term limits law, placed there by popular referendum. I say, huzzah. Term limits have always rubbed me the wrong way. They…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fourth-estate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28864,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/13\/election-news-from-2012-08-12.html","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":0},"title":"Election News from 2012-08-12","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Aug-12 7:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Was it odd timing that Ryan was announced on a Saturday morning? \u00a0Or was it to lock in the discussions on the Sunday talk shows? \u00a0Or does anyone pay any attention to the Sunday talk shows any more? Romney\/Ryan\u00a0- Okay, I was surprised that Romney didn't go for someone to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2012"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2012","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2012"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/romney_ryan.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/romney_ryan.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/romney_ryan.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2753,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/09\/25\/mans_gotta_know.html","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":1},"title":"Man’s gotta know his limits","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Sep-02 1:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), our sometimes whacky local congressman, has decided to blow off his original term limits pledge. As he enters the race for this third term, which he'd promised...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3439,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/21\/history.html","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":2},"title":"History","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 21-Nov-02 12:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not a supporter of term limits, but some paragraphs do make you pause: Dwight Eisenhower was days away from becoming the first president to hold a televised news conference...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25439,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/15\/our-dumb-inattentive-electorate.html","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":3},"title":"Our Dumb, Inattentive Electorate","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 15-Jan-12 6:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"At least the young electorate. According to Fox News.I'm sure that plays well with the average-age-60s Fox News Audience (\"Hey, you kids get off my voting precinct!\"). Hell of a way to run a democracy, though. #ddtb Embedded Link Fox News John Stossel: Young People \u2018Are Dumb Or Don\u2019t Pay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131826,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/18\/donald-trump-the-ethics-in-government-candidate.html","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":4},"title":"Donald Trump the … "ethics in government" candidate?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Oct-16 5:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to give the Donald credit -- this is the kind of thing that will actually appeal to people without appealing directly to their baser instincts. Unfortunately, like most simplistic ideas, Trump's suggestions here are less than perfect.Yes, everyone wants to \"throw the bums out\" of Congress by imposing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3508,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/05\/ive_got_issues.html","url_meta":{"origin":1262,"position":5},"title":"I’ve got issues","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Nov-02 1:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Fortunately, today they're on the ballot, here in beeyooteeful Colorado. Referendum A - Exempt District Attorneys from Term Limits. Term limits are stupid. I understand the sentiment behind them, but...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}