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Who knew Mike had a spine?
And who cares?
TERM LIMITS,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and all this would not have happened for either party. All these career politicians advancing themselves from their government influences has bought them vacation beach houses, board seats where they have no experience and other lavish lifestyles. Its all gone to their heads causing them to believe they are much greater than they should be therefore causing voting weaknesses and much much more. VOTE THEM ALL OUT.
Russell…we already have term limits. Every two years members of the US House of Representatives, and every six years, on a rolling basis, the members of the US Senate, must be reelected. If WE THE PEOPLE don’t think they should hold those offices, we vote them out. We can vote them out because we don’t like how they’ve voted on legislation important to us, or because of their conduct, or because we don’t like the way they comb their hair or the color of their shirts. Or for no reason at all. And, we can vote them out because we think they’ve been there too long.
So if you want to remove from the Congress individuals whom you and others who agree with you feel should be removed because they’ve been there too long, you may do so. You organize behind your candidates, others will organize behind their candidates, who may or may not be the incumbent, and we’ll have an election. Person with the most votes wins. Sounds pretty American, and democratic, to me…
Finally, I must admit I’m at a loss as to how Term Limits would have prevented the fraud attempted by Trump and his allies. The President is term limited to two terms (more or less, read the Constitution). Yet this attempted coup still went forward. Often with the backing of Republican Representatives and Senators who are relatively new to their respective seats. I don’t recall seeing Mitch O’Connell, Senator Grassley from Iowa, or any Senator, R or D, with more than 3 terms, backing this effort. Most of the folks I saw standing up for the coup attempt were relatively new, less than 10 years. So I’m not certain how your version of term limits would have helped here. It’s the newbies, the ones who have no sense of their responsibilities as elected leaders, no sense of history, or how to govern, who fed this mess.
Your last point regarding seniority is right, and I’d never thought about it. That same group of senior Republican senators had selective outrage over Trump’s entire term.
The newer Congresscritters are much more in the Trumpian mode. Which means: they’re scared of him. And his supporters.
Tim – I 95% agree. But if the Political Party won’t back another candidate, its hard to succeed.
David G: Want to check with Dick Lugar on that? Or Liz Cheney? Or Lisa Murkowski? Or the slew of Democratic and Republican House and Senators who will not seek reelection this year because they know they don’t align with their new party base, or with newly gerrymandered districts.
Yes, it’s hard to succeed. But perhaps that suggests those with the most interest in the tenure, the party and its long term members, see value in that candidate. Perhaps the rising tide of changes in primaries will change some of that, at least in Marion County and selection of judges. But the key concept is the voters ALWAYS have the right to not follow the party. It will take work. It will take funding. It will require dedication. But its all possible. You just have to want it…
So Mike Pence only does the right thing when the law forces him to, even though he’s tried to find any way possible to skirt the law…. I never knew that was a Christian value…..
What a joke. Stolen elections have consequences.
As I’ve noted in another post regarding Pence, I’m conflicted on the “new” Mike Pence. I met him years ago, back when he was a Catholic Democrat. I know, seems ages ago. about 40 years.
While I never liked his politics, I thought him a good and decent man. Misguided in his beliefs, especially for abandoning his Democratic positions for those of the evangelical right. But in all a decent man. A man with whom you’d have a beer and talk about the world.
Then came being Governor, and then VP. Especially the VP part. A complete abandonment of principles to gain control of the Supreme Court. Cannot be reconciled with his Christian beliefs. He behavior did not reflect the Pence he tried to sell us: A Christian, A Conservative, and a Politician, in that order. It became Conservative Politician, and the Christian part was abandoned.
But I think, and hope, this new Mike Pence is a return to the principled, morals based guy. I hope so, if for no other reason than his own well being.
Is this “flip flop” a Christian value? If its insincere, no. But if its sincere, then my Catholicism says I should forgive him his trespasses, as I ask others forgiveness of mine.
So we’ll see. He is on a Quixotic venture, perhaps…running for an office he cannot seriously hope to win…perhaps he feels the need to try to right the wrongs he enabled. I don’t think its an ego thing.
But, if he’s sincere, then grace and forgiveness will follow him