term limits are a crap idea. they end up giving power to unelected staffers and lobbyists. also they are undemocratic. amendment limiting presidential terms has been really harmful. prevents popular democrats from running. if there were no term limits, obama would be pres now.
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Replying to @nberlat
feels a lot like gerontocracy is a lot more undemocratic than term limits
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Replying to @Nymphomachy
it's not though. transferring power to lobbyists is really undemocratic. there's nothing undemocratic about voters selecting older reps. we should remove age restrictions on running though; that's undemocratic.
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Replying to @nberlat
There's an sizeable body of evidence that the power of incumbency just compounds with age, that name recognition eclipses policy, and that an apathetic electorate will just make non-meritocratically render candidates unchallengable via sheer inertia That is gerontocratic
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Replying to @Nymphomachy @nberlat
Like why does "term limits empower lobbyists" translate to "therefore gerontocracy is good" and not simply "term limits require a ban on lobbying"
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Replying to @Nymphomachy @nberlat
Banning lobbying is pretty difficult, especially if you have a constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech and freedom to petition
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Replying to @arthur_affect @nberlat
I mean it still feels like a lobby-proof democracy should be the aspiration, rather than resigning oneself to lobbying as an inevitability
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the phrase "lobbying as an inevitability" makes it sound like you think lobbying should be done away with altogether but lobbying isn't inherently bad - Planned Parenthood lobbies, as do a lot of other progressive orgs & grassroots groups
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yeah and almost all of them are drowned out by the power of much more entrenched interests so I'm not convinced the system shouldn't be wiped away altogether
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the solution to this issue wouldn't be doing away with lobbying altogether or acting like lobbying is inherently evil, but setting up a system that prevents lobbies from becoming as powerful as this - that's a problem inherent to capitalism, not lobbying
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A "lobby" is just someone who spends all their time demanding stuff from the government, and being able to do that is exactly how democracy is supposed to work As with everything else, the problem is that rich people who do it are far more powerful at it than the rest of us
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Replying to @arthur_affect @tiredsias and
I would argue that a country that has a word for it and has people go to school to make it their profession and requires organizations to formally register as "lobbying groups" for this purpose is in many ways healthier than one that doesn't
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Replying to @arthur_affect @tiredsias and
It's like having organized political parties You may not like that politics is a big competition of factions run by powerful elites trying to beat each other rather than a bunch of thoughtful neutral arbiters trying to make objectively correct decisions But it is
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