by BB Curtis

I believe that one of the top three reasons for the US Congress and Supreme Court having the issues they have boils down to this: In 1789 when these two entities were set up, the life expectancy was late 50s. It’s now 76 for the average male in the United States. Now that we have people in Congress and on the bench who are outliving that expectancy by 30-plus years, we need term limits. Term limits wouldn’t have been such a big deal 233 years ago when about 30 years was going to be the longest someone would hold a seat since you had to be 30 to take office. However, Jefferson had concerns that there were no term limits. “On December 20th, 1787, after the Constitutional Convention was over and while the ratification of the Constitution was being debated in state legislatures, Jefferson wrote a letter to Madison objecting to key parts of the Constitution. Among other things, Jefferson was concerned that the document lacked a Bill Of Rights and failed to establish term limits for federal officials. ” https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/a-quick-look-at-thomas-jeffersons-constitutional-legacy/

• Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) — 51 years in office (1959-2010) – 93 at time of death in 2010*
• Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) —  49 years in office (1963-2012) – 88 at time of death in 2012*
• Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-SC 1954-1964, R-SC 1964-2003) — 48 years in office (1954-2003) – 101 at time of death 2003*
• Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) — 47 years in office (1962-2009) – 77 at time of death 2009*
• Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) — 47 years – still in office, 82 years old
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — 41 years – still in office, 89 years old
• Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) — 37 years – still in office, 80 years old

*Note that Byrd, Inouye, Thurmond, and Kennedy died in office.

Term limits! We need term limits.

© Bobbi Bartsch Curtis, 2022, all rights reserved.