Term limits are limitations that restrict the number of years that someone can serve in an elected office. However, there are no limitations of terms for the members of Congress. They are allowed to run for reelection as many times as they want. The founding fathers intended that elections would reflect the political values of citizens and check the power of government. Term limits should be implemented to prevent career politicians because the founding founders never intended politics to become a career.TheUnited States should have a national referendum to propose a constitutionalamendment to institute term limits. The founding of the United States was aradical movement by a collection of like-minded individuals who had new ideasof freedom and self-governments. The backgrounds of the founding fathers werevarying from scholars, statesmen, industrialists, and businessmen. Thejuxtaposition of their backgrounds fostered debate, new ideas, consensus, anddescent. It can be said the each of the founding fathers were leaders, not onlyin their communities, but in their fields. Professional politicians were notyet a byproduct of the new American government. Also there were not yetdistinct political parties or PACs or super PACs (Political action committees). In the beginnings of this representativerepublic most congressmen did not serve more than a couple of terms. Most hadlives, families, and business to get back to. They saw serving in congress as aduty and sacrifice in an effort to make the country grow and stronger.Term limits should be introduced to reinforce states’rights, reduce corruption, and reinvigorate the republic.Inthe 1990 congressional reelection, voter’s reelected rate of incumbentsexceeded ninety-six percent. Voters that disapproved by Congress just stayed athome and didn’t vote because it seemed that there opinion didn’t matter. Italso made it difficult for voters to express their opinion about Congress. Twodays before the election in 1990, there was a national survey that showed thatsixty-nine percent of people did not approve of Congress. Fifty-one percent didapprove of the congressmen that were chosen. The22nd Amendment was added to the constitution in February of 1951.This limited the number of terms a president can serve. Franklin DelanoRoosevelt served twelve years. Congress decided that there needed to be anamendment that limits the amount of terms that presidents can serve for. Theymade this decision not long after Roosevelt’s death. Term limits were put inplace to restrict too much executive power. Fifteen states have adopted termlimits for their state legislators, but states can’t limit the terms for U.S.Senators. OnNovember third of 1992, in the Arkansas Supreme Court, amendment seventy-three(the term limitation amendment) was adopted by Arkansas voters. This amendmentprovided for limits of two terms for executive officials and state senators andthree terms for state representatives. If someone served two or more terms as amember of the United States Senate from Arkansas, they would be ineligible forre-election as a US Senator from Arkansas, due to the term limitationamendment.“Its preamble stated: ‘The people of Arkansas find and declare that elected officials who remain in office too long become preoccupied with reelection and ignore their duties as representatives of the people. Entrenched incumbency has reduced voter participation and has led to an electoral system that is less free, less competitive, and less representative than the system established by the Founding Fathers. Therefore, the people of Arkansas, exercising their reserved powers, herein limit the terms of the elected officials.’”. (Stevens 5) InMay of 1995, the Supreme Court made a decision ruling 5-4 in United States TermLimits, Inc. v. Thornton. The ruling was that “states cannot impose term limitsupon their federal Representatives or Senators. In the 1994 elections, part ofthe Republican platform included legislation for term limits in Congress” (Stevens72). Termlimits would make it difficult for the federal government to enact rules, laws,create agencies that strip powers from the states, for example EPA (environmentalprotection agencies), DHS (department of homeland security), DOE (department ofeducation), entitlement programs, earmarks, and subsidies. The Constitutionalpower that the federal government is responsible for is entering into treatieswith foreign governments. They also have the power to wage war, declare war,and win war. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the UnitedStates  Constitution , which givesCongress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among theseveral states, and with the Indian tribes.” Section 8 also explains Congressmay have the “power to lay and collect taxes”, declare war, regulate interstatecommerce, coin money, and raise an army. “When the Framers met in Philadelphia in 1787 and wrote the constitution that governs us today, they addressed that failure and through the commerce and the privileges and immunities clauses that created a national free-trade zone. The original purpose of the commerce clause was primarily a means to eliminate trade barriers among the states. They didn’t intend for the commerce clause to govern so much of our lives. Indeed, as James Madison, the father of our Constitution, explained, ‘The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite’”. (Williams 3) The longest someone has served in the Senate is fifty-one years, five months, and twenty-six days. The person who held this record is Robert C. Byrd. John Dingell Jr. served in the House of Representatives for more than fifty-three years.  Congressmen are not there long enough to gain power, or write legislation in the form of tax loop holes. Term limits will break the cycle of career politicians (people building power over time) and facilitate a return to the “common man” being involved in the political process. They will bring new ideas, new perspective, and reinforce “of the people, by the people, for the people.”  Thephrase “drain the swap” refers to removing career politicians from theirelected office.  There are a lot ofpeople who think that America is just filled with a bunch of careerpoliticians, and we need to “drain the swamp”. Some of these career politiciansaren’t accountable to the people. They stop doing what the people want andfocus on running for reelection and how they are going to deal with thingsthemselves. “Term limits in Congress would encourage members of Congress tomake their time in office matter.” (Desantis 21). Amember of the United States Term Limits advocacy group, Austin Sekel wrote that“term limits don’t exist to keep people out of office. They exist to make theregular rotation possible, and to create opportunities for new leaders toemerge.” (Sekel 7). Term limits aren’t meant to push people out ofCongress. Without term limits, only certain people can run for election. Othercitizens don’t have an equal chance of becoming a new congressman, when thesame people get reelected every election. The Founding Fathers intended forother people to have a chance to become congressmen, develop new ideas, createopportunities, and become new leaders in America. TheFounding Fathers were not career politicians. It is difficult to believe whenthey were developing the frame work and the foundations of the new republic,that they would purposely develop or create a mechanism that would introduce aclass of citizen who would monopolize and control the political process overtime. While removing the very strength of the public, by eroding states’ rightsand coagulate consolidating power into a central government. The United Statesof America was built as a representative republic. There should be no careerpoliticians, billion dollar contracts, trillion dollar budgets, or two thousandplus page bills passed by the federal government, with hidden kickbacks,special interest, and earmarks. Theonly time the federal government meaning the legislature should ever agree onanything should be in the matters of treaties, and war. The federal governmentwas designed so that congress and the senate would find it extremely difficultto build consensus on any issue unless it was a clear and present danger, orsuch a massive societal shift that you could get more than 60 percent of thecitizenry or their representative to agree to a national change. As it standsnow, congress has turned into an elite club ran by career politicians, specialinterest, and power brokers. Instituting term limits would reinvigorate therepublic, restore power to the states, and reduce corruption. Works CitedLiedl, Mark B.“The Case for Limiting Congressional Terms.” The Heritage Foundation, 1 Dec.1990, www.heritage.org/report/the-case-limiting-congressional-terms.Staff, LII.“Commerce Clause.” LII / Legal Information Institute, 11 June 2016, www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commerce_clause.Williams, WalterE. “Commerce Clause Abuse.” Commerce Clause Abuse, 4 Oct. 2003,econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/articles/03/abuse.html.Murse, Tom. “ThePros and Cons of Imposing Terms Limits for Congress.” ThoughtCo, 9 July 2017, www.thoughtco.com/debate-over-term-limits-for-congress-3367505.“U. S. TermLimits, Inc. v. Thornton.” Oyez, 24 Apr. 2018, www.oyez.org/cases/1994/93-1456.Stevens. U.S. TermLimits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779 (1995)., 22 May 1995, www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-1456.ZO.html.“The Limits ofTerm Limits.” Restoration: Congress, Term Limits, and the Recovery of theDeliberative Democracy, by Terry Eastland, pp. 54–55.Get Help With Your EssayIf you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!Find out more