The Empire is striking back. The American people voted and voted for term limits.
This decade 23 states placed limits on their congressional delegations. Eighteen states (40 percent of the population) now have limits on their state legislatures. Thousands of local officials across the country have mandated rotation in office. New York, LA, Denver, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C. have all enacted limits in the 90’s.
How do the Darth Vaders of the political class react to all this? There’s a lot of heavy breathing that’s for sure. If you didn’t support term limits before you might after learning about all the dirty tricks politicians have pulled against term limits. Term limits laws have been taken to court endlessly. In California, legislators twice sued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But term limits prevailed.
In 1995, the Supreme Court did strike down the congressional term limits laws passed in 23 states. But citizen legislators in the Congress are fighting back by limiting their own terms. The political class has tried to thwart the voters at the local level, too. Political bosses in New York City slipped a confusing measure on the ballot to extend term limits to 12 years. Voters said no.
In city after city, politicians have used every trick in the book to try to fool voters into repealing them. Voters are sticking to their guns. Yes, the Empire is striking back. But term limits are working and coming soon to a town near you. May the force be with you.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.