U.S. Term Limits (USTL) just announced my pledge to serve no more than three terms in congress if the voters in the 8th Congressional District elect me this November. USTL is a grassroots movement dedicated to weeding out corruption and restoring sanity in government by limiting the corrosive power that careerism has in government, signing their pledge was a no-brainer because I share their passion to reign in the grip that money and incumbency have in our political system.
Given that Congress’s approval rating is less than 20%—a figure that is nearing the popularity level of Covid-19—and the rampant kleptocracy that is taking place in our nation’s capital, we must make a fundamental change if we are to save our Republic from becoming a train wreck. The urgency of now cannot be underscored enough, we cannot keep falling for the same bamboozle both Democrats and Republicans have been pulling on us for decades—now is time for an authentic change.
Limiting the number of terms that Representatives and Senators serve in DC is a powerful way to effect change that can yield immediate results. The reason why the Federal government is dysfunctional and caters to the whims of billionaires while cratering the rest of us is because politicians entrench themselves in the US Capitol and become careerists who care more about gaining and maintaining power than they are in representing their constituents.
Congress has essentially become a country club of millionaires who are working for billionaires while working the rest of us over. The whole system is built on the foundation of seniority where longevity is rewarded and those who come in with fresh ideas or want to “shake things up” are marginalized by Representatives or Senators who have spent decades living large off our tax dollars.
In this paradigm, individual politicians become nothing more than mannequins while party leaders like Pelosi, Schumer, McConnel and McCarthy shape legislation at the behest of their corporate and oligarch masters. What we get are professional gas lighters who carry a big stick on Twitter and whisper meekly in Congress while being given potent megaphones that they use to incite emotions and pit us against one another. Forget the Washington Post’s disingenuous motto, our “democracy” is being killed in broad daylight by this level of consolidated nepotism.
The only way to break the paradigm is to break the influence of incumbency. There are some who will argue that institutional knowledge will be lost if we keep turning over Congress on a regular basis, as if the collection of nearly monolithic and uber privileged politicians in DC are doing such an astounding job of safeguarding our Republic. I would rather take a chance on new faces than go with the same politicians who wrought us skyrocketing inflation, unaffordable healthcare, unlivable wages and never-ending wars.
When the founders of America envisioned a government of, by and for the people, they never dreamed of professional politicians who would park themselves in our nation’s capital and turn grifting into an art. I am running for Congress to reject the status quo because we cannot afford another year of business as usual in DC. My opponent Don Beyer, who is worth over $124 million—money that he inherited from his dad—and is running for his fifth term, is the exact reason why we need term limits.
As long as money and marketing are rewarded over ideas and merit, we will keep getting a government that pretends to represent us while it represses us with fiscal and monetary policies that are indenturing all of us. No more voting in the usual suspects year in and year out only to scream “vote the bums out” shortly after they get elected, we must enact term limits to preserve our governance. I pledge to do exactly that if I am elected to Congress in November.
When you get a minute, get in touch with the Washington Post, Washington Times, Politico and local newspapers like Alexandria Times and Alexandria Now and ask them to cover USTL’s announcement. This is a newsworthy event given that the vast majority of Americans are fed up with the status quo and yearn for something different. It is incumbent on national and local press to hear our voices and ensure that the issues we care about are debated vigorously before votes are cast, where they fail to do so, we must press them to live up to their journalistic standard in order to preserve our representative democracy.