People can make a difference. The proof? Term limits are now the law for 18 state legislatures — nearly 40 percent of the country.
These laws were the work of thousands of activists retired senior citizens who petitioned in store parking lots in bitter cold and sweltering heat; young people who took time away from their families; small businessmen who took time away from their firms.
And they won. They changed politics-as-usual. Their goal wasn’t to throw the bums out so much as to let new people and new ideas back in.
But, many politicians are taking it personally. They think politics is all about them. That’s why they ignore the people’s vote. Again and again they sneak around looking for some way to overturn the clear will of the people.
Again and again good citizens, whose whole lives aren’t politics, are forced to take time away from their jobs and loved ones to battle the politicians. Benjamin Franklin pointed out that, “In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns. For the former, therefore, to return to the latter is not to degrade them but to promote them.”
Some of our elected officials, whether they agree with term limits or not, have been willing to abide by the will of the people. They deserve our thanks. But those politicians who sow the seeds of cynicism by their un-American maneuvering only make the case for term limits stronger.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.