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Recently a candidate for Congress attended a meeting of political activists. He told the folks that he wanted to win the seat and hold it for 20 years. One of the activists ventured, “I take it you’re not for term limits?” “Oh yes, yes, yes,” said the candidate. “I’m for term limits. I’m a BIG supporter of term limits.”

Politicians are notorious at talking the talk, but then not walking the walk. For career politicians, issues are something they put in their speeches and commercials because they know that’s what voters care about. Issues are the bait politicians use to catch voters, but politicians aren’t committed to anything but the act of reeling us in. They often don’t respect our opinions the morning after the election.

But there is a pledge that gives us as voters a lot better handle on what is truly motivating someone to run for office. It’s called the Term Limits Pledge. It’s not a pledge to support term limit bills in a Congress dead-​set against them. It’s a pledge about not pursuing a career as a politician, at all. Going to Washington for a short period of public service as a citizen legislator. No more than three terms, tops.

Career politicians become skillful at the bob and weave of telling people what they want to hear, and then finding excuses for failing to follow through. But representatives who take the Term Limits Pledge swear off a career. They act on their belief in term limits. And they do fight for what they believe in. They walk the walk.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

An emergency has been declared in Washington. Has violence broken out? Are we on the verge of war? Walking on nuclear eggshells? No, none of that. The specific emergency declared by Congress is the 2000 census.

Now the census isn’t exactly an emergency. We’ve known about it since the Constitution was ratified in 1790. What gives? Congress is simply claiming it’s an emergency so they can bust the budget caps and go on a spending spree. Just one more Washington lie.

Yet, while Congress is playing games, there is a real emergency the continued lack of seriousness and honesty on the part of those in Washington who handle the people’s money.

In the 1997 budget deal, the President and Congress agreed to budget caps to slow future spending increases. But career politicians saw it as another Washington photo-​op, a nice fairytale for the folks back home. The spending caps give us a fighting chance against the looming crisis in Social Security and the $5.5 trillion in debt that crushes taxpayers with huge interest payments.

But to cynical career politicians the caps were meaningless the minute taxpayers turned off the evening news. The career politicians didn’t expect to deal with a group in the Congress who aren’t pursuing careers and thus are serious about keeping their word on the budget caps.

Those who made the Term Limits Pledge: Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and others are fighting for honest accounting. They’re dealing with the real emergency in Washington.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Denver is known as the “Mile High” city. Nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains, it is actually a mile above sea level. As the capital of Colorado, a political swing state, politics tend to be interesting there. Reforms like term limits first took root in Colorado. But Denver itself has not been reform-minded.

When a 1994 statewide vote limited the terms of all local elected officials, career politicians in Denver thought it must have been meant for others, surely not them. The good citizens of Denver would understand that the city couldn’t survive without the miracles regularly produced by these professional politicians. After all, the city is a mile above sea level higher than most of the thrones of Europe. So the royalists on the Denver council put a repeal of term limits on the ballot.

Voters were not amused, and when the votes were counted neither were the mayor and council. Voters said “wait a second!” and kept term limits by a two to one margin. Now the council has dreamed up a new scheme.

Since the voters won’t agree with them, they’ll simply reduce the voters’ control of the council. The council is taking the first steps toward destroying the initiative process that allows citizens to reform government directly. They are seeking to raise the petition requirements by 600 percent. That’s more than a mile high. It would destroy the initiative process completely.

Thankfully, there’s a big fly in the council’s ointment. Voters must approve this change. And they won’t.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Most of the folks we send to Washington want to do the right thing. Yet, after a few terms in office they begin to change. They stop representing us and start representing Washington, D.C.

The story of George Nethercutt, a Republican from Washington State, seems destined to become a classic of human weakness. On the strength of a pledge to serve no more than three terms, Nethercutt defeated the most powerful man in Congress, Speaker of the House Tom Foley. It was David toppling Goliath.

Now Nethercutt has broken his word to the voters. He’ll run again. And his campaign finance report looks like reports he attacked Speaker Foley for. Most of Nethercutt’s money is coming from Washington not Washington State, Washington, D.C. According to his FEC report, 91 percent of Nethercutt’s contributions, or more than $113,000, were from special interest PACs and Washington DC Political Committees, while only 9 percent, or barely $10,000 came from individual donors. Of those individuals, only three live in Washington’s 5th Congressional District. A fat $20,000 came directly from PACs controlled by the top leaders in Congress.

These so-​called leaders have been urging poor George to abandon his integrity in exchange for a career in Congress. It’s also clear that while Nethercutt was pretending to agonize over breaking his word back home, in DC he was in raking in PAC money and lying to reporters about it.

George Nethercutt is representing Washington, all right, but sadly it’s the wrong Washington.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

In a democratic republic, we control our government largely by voting.

That’s why it’s a so sad to see the low voter turnout in so many elections. Is there a way to fix this? Some people argue we should slap fines on people who fail to vote or even throw them in jail to rot alongside axe-​murderers, and other non-​voters. A number of countries do it this way, but frankly, I’m glad I don’t live in those countries.

Fact is, there’s little to vote on these days. The legislative districts are skewed toward one party and incumbents rarely face credible challengers. I can’t blame someone for not going to the polls when there isn’t anything to vote for. People tend to do what is in their interest. So instead of trying to force people to vote, why not give them something to vote for?

States where citizens can place laws directly on the ballot enjoy about 5 percent higher voter turn-​out than the other states. Just the other day, there was a local election in Nashville, Tennessee. Such local elections usually suffer very low turnout sometimes under 10 percent. Yet, Nashville’s election saw a 33 percent increase in voter participation. Why? Term limits opened up a majority of the 40 council positions as well as the mayor’s office.

So the people of Nashville had a lot of candidates running and much more competitive elections. In short, they had something to vote for. Same thing happened in states like California, Michigan, and Colorado and cities like New Orleans and Kansas City.

Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we try term limits everywhere?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.