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100220 SURE-FIRE WAY TO RE-TAKE CONGRESS

Most folks think I am too unreasonable in asking everyone to NEVER REELECT ANYONE IN CONGRESS. They think it’s an ‘extremist’ position. But that’s the whole point! Congress will never listen to us UNLESS we scare the bejesus out of them! To drive the point home, NEVER REELECT ANYONE IN CONGRESS, AND DO IT EVERY ELECTION!

The closer we get to a “Voter’s One-Term Congress”, the closer we’ll get to a “Citizen’s Congress”.

There is only one way to make this happen : The American voter must IMPOSE term limits on Congress by NEVER REELECTING ANYONE IN CONGRESS, AND DO IT EVERY ELECTION!

In other words, don't let anyone serve more than one term. That's the only way to teach them that the voter is the boss! The “one term limit” can be eased AFTER citizens get control of Congress.

Congress will never allow us to constitutionally term limit them by an amendment. Our only choice is to NEVER REELECT them. All of them!

Remember too, it makes no difference who you vote for, as long as it is NEVER any incumbent.

I believe that even a little success in a campaign to NEVER REELECT ANYONE IN CONGRESS would move us a long way toward a revolutionary change in American politics, much like 1776. Some of the reasons in favor of this approach:

• It gives us a one-term, term limited Congress without using amendments
• It would be supported by 70% of the country who want term limits for Congress
• It is completely non-partisan
• If repeated, it ends career politicians dominating Congress
• It opens the way to a “citizen Congress”
• It ends the seniority system that keeps freshmen powerless
• It doesn’t cost you any money. But you MUST vote! Just don’t vote for an incumbent
• It is the only guaranteed, infallible, unstoppable way to “Throw ALL the Bums Out”
• It takes effect immediately the day after Election Day
• If it doesn’t work, do it again and again! It will work eventually, I promise.

090727 CALLING ALL BLOGGERS (text)
My name is Nelson Lee Walker, of tenurecorrupts.com . My site is dedicated to saving our Republic from the professional politicians who dominate Congress. Presidents come and go, but Congress, regardless of party, is reelected forever, damn the Constitution, damn the people, and damn term limits.

Congress is at the heart of all the problems our country faces.

The only way to dislodge the career politicians from Congress is to change the way the American people vote for Congress. This is how we can do it:

There now exists thousands of bloggers who agree that our Congress is corrupt, and who blog daily about this sad state of affairs. I want to enlist this huge crowd of active bloggers to do one easy, specific thing for their country: Please place the following directive in a permanent prominent location on your blog (in bold caps):

If we can convince enough Americans to vote this way, repeatedly, it is the one infallible, unstoppable way to produce a bloodless, nonpartisan, political revolution as important as 1776.

It would give us de facto voter-imposed single term limits, without the need for an amendment! It would give us an instantaneous citizen Congress. And it takes effect on Election Day!

All that is required is that every blogger place those ten words in a prominent permanent location on his blog page. Voila! Millions of impressions to voters every day. It will have a growing effect on every coming election.

While you’re at it, convince all other bloggers you can reach, to do the same. You don’t need to expand on your reasons for doing so, but every supporting essay helps to convince the fence-sitters.

Starting in the last half of the 20th century, Americans have become ever more cynical and apathetic in their attitude toward election politics. 50% of us, fully one half , of Americans don’t vote. And to make things worse, those who do vote, continue to blindly reelect Congress at a 95% reelection rate, regardless of the corruption, bad fiscal policies, and awful laws which are enacted.

All is not lost however. It is possible to use this huge army of disgruntled non-voters to rejuvenate our Congress and our country. All we have to do is convince them of a winning issue they would very much want to vote on.

There are at least three aspects of this situation, which “we the people” can and should exploit:

First, ‘we the people’ still have the vote , let’s use it;
Second, fifty percent of us are turned off, and don’t vote, which amounts to a powerful constituency;
Third, this non-voting 50%, all by themselves, acting together, could throw ALL the bums out!

In any given Congressional election, if all the usual non-voters voted, and only for challengers, the challengers would sweep the field.

The very powerful motivator in those three points is that a great many of those people who don’t vote are people who hate the professional politicians and the system, and, if and when they did vote, would vote almost unanimously for such things as Term Limits, Balanced Budgets, No Earmarks, etc, etc.

Therefore, we must wake up that sleeping giant called ‘non-voters’, and get THEM to realize that
they and they alone have the power to make an earthshaking difference in American political history.

Simply by voting a solid NEVER REELECT ticket, regardless of party, they would cause a revolution rivalling 1776.

An interesting and attractive feature of this strategy is that it makes no difference which party, or which issue, or which candidate, these returning non-voters voted for, so long as they actually voted, and only for challengers, NOT for any ANY INCUMBENT. In effect, they would be creating a “voter-imposed term limit”, on a one-term Congress.

If enough of those 50% non-voters got this message and decided to vote, even if “regular” voters didn’t change their bad “reelection” voting habits, there would be a flood of rejected long-termers out of the Congress. America would be changed immediately and forever. Never again would professional politicians ignore voters in favor of reelection by the special interests. And we might finally get some constitutional amendment proposals, such as for term limits and balanced budgets.

In fact, that might spell the beginning of the end of career politicians in Congress.

However...the missing ingredient for such a strategy of course is the advertising money that would be required to reach and arouse those ‘non-voters’. Since most ‘non-voters’ probably don’t even listen to the “main stream media”, it will take special efforts to even get in touch with them.

If any of you who see or hear this message know of any ‘deep-pocket’ individuals or organizations who might be interested in trying this particular tactic of rousing that huge group of non-voters to come out at least once or twice to show that it will work to “throw the bums out”, please bring this idea to their attention.

Congress is “owned” by the two-party professional political class. Ordinary citizens, 3rd parties, and Independents needn’t apply. Incumbents get reelected 95% of the time.

Even if we were able to mount an enormously successful grass roots campaign demanding Congress Term Limits, Congress would ignore it, subvert it, or make it illegal. Newt Gingrich's 1995 Congress proposed and defeated a fraudulent term limits vote just to fool the voters.

To change this status quo, we ordinary citizens must pay a price. Not in money. Only in determination.

We must be committed to change Congress by our very special vote! And we must do it every 2 years, for several elections in a row.

Simply by NEVER REELECTING ANYONE in Congress , we can get a majority of non-professional freshmen Congressmen seated, in effect creating a voter’s one term Congress! Boy! Wouldn’t that get their attention!

BTW, to all those ‘nervous nellies’ out there: Don’t worry about “one term” being too short. We can address that question AFTER we get citizen control of Congress.

First, we must stop our usual habits of voting by party, by politician, or by issue.

We must vote with only one thing in mind, “Throw ALL the bums out!” It’s easy. I do it all the time!

To do that, we must ALWAYS vote for the strongest challenger, regardless whether he is a Democrat or a Republican. There’s the pain! Grit your teeth and live with it!

Regardless of your own special political position on party, issue, or whatever. You must
NEVER REELECT ANYONE IN CONGRESS . It’s the only thing that will work to take Congress back.

That’s the price we must all pay to get a clean, citizen Congress to replace the corrupt officeholders we have gotten by our repeatedly reelecting 95% of them for so many years.

I believe Congress is slowly but surely destroying its own integrity and credibility, which makes the NEVER REELECT idea more plausible every day.

First, we must change Congress. The only way we have the power to do it, by... NEVER REELECTING ANYONE IN CONGRESS. They can’t stop us!

There is only one infallible, unstoppable way for you to get an honest, citizen Congress. NEVER REELECT ANY CONGRESSMAN OR SENATOR. The good ones, the bad ones, all of them. We must force a voter-imposed single term on both houses of Congress. That is the only change that will have real results, and that is the price we must pay to take Congress back from the professional politicians.

Well, the first opportunity to do anything substantive will arrive in November 2010. That’s when we get our chance to bring in a new Congress: the whole House of Representatives, and 1/3 of the Senate.

But to do something which will be of real benefit to the country will require a different kind of voting by you and me. No longer can we indulge ourselves to vote for OUR party, or OUR incumbent, or OUR favorite issue. We must always vote, but the most vital thing to do is to REELECT NOBODY in Congress. That means we must do a VOTER-IMPOSED TERM LIMITS on Congress. On your representative, and on your two Senators. All three of them. Even if they have served only one term.

Do you realize that incumbents get reelected 95% of the time? We have been reelecting them like this for 40 or 50 years, and our country and its politics has been getting dirtier and dirtier. We absolutely could not do worse if we had a few Congresses full of freshmen only. I believe we would do a helluva lot better!

If we could drive the 95% reelection rate down to only 50%, many more ordinary citizens would run for Congress, and win. It would destroy the class of professional politicians who corrupt and dominate Congress. They would not run if they knew they were only going to serve one term.

And for the first time, it would show Congress that they work for US, not the other way around!

Remember, the President can do very little without the approval of Congress. And if we succeed in removing the professional politician incumbents from Congress, and we start to vote for non-professional citizen representatives, guys like you and me, we are far more likely to have a Congress which will honor the Constitution, and which will vote for things which are good for the country, instead of the pork which reelects them, or laws which take away our liberties, or the latest special interest fad.

The one infallible, unstoppable way to take back our Congress is to NEVER REELECT them.

Starting in the primaries, if your incumbent has challengers, vote for his strongest challenger. If he is unopposed, vote for the strongest other party candidate. In the election, if your incumbent won the primary, vote for the strongest other party candidate. if your party’s challenger won, OK, vote for him. Never vote for any incumbent. In short, NEVER REELECT anyone in Congress.

The one infallible, unstoppable way to take back our Congress is to NEVER REELECT them.

More and more people are realizing that, if we are ever to take back our country from the professional political class, the career politicians, this is the only way to vote. Only AFTER our Congress has a large number of ‘citizen members’ who are serving only one term, will we be able to vote for candidates based on other issues.

The one infallible, unstoppable way to take back our Congress is to NEVER REELECT them.

The most common argument against Congressional Term Limits is that we would lose all that “valuable legislative experience” that’s required to make an effective Congress. What a bunch of mularky!
Over half of Congress is being held by career politicians for far longer than any term limits would allow, yet Congress has never had a worse record low 9% approval rating!
And that’s NOT due to either Democrats or Republicans. It’s due to BOTH of them.
Or more accurately, it is due to we, the voters, who keep reelecting them!

Does a 9% approval rating sound like we have a good Congress with good legislative results? Sounds to me that they only have experience on how to “con” us and get reelected in spite of their lousy performance.
They won’t allow a term limits bill. They won’t allow federal initiative and referendum. They won’t allow an Article V amendment convention. They won’t allow the people any opportunity to rein in their power and privileges.

There’s only one way short of armed revolt to throw the bums out! We CAN do it!
All we have to do is...
NEVER REELECT THEM...even after only one term! Better still, always after one term!
Simply NEVER REELECT. That’s voter-imposed term limits. It’s done at election time.
That means that we, all of us, must stop voting by party, or special issue, or economic class, or favorite candidate, or whatever.

We must simply NEVER REELECT. That means we never vote for any incumbent. That means we never allow anyone in Congress to serve more than ONE term. That’s a voter imposed term limit.
We couldn’t do worse with a totally freshman Congress than with what we have today. I’d bet we’d do a helluva lot better.

Remember, this country grew to greatness before we had career politicians, because ordinary citizens started businesses, created inventions, solved all kinds of problems. Who says they couldn’t serve in Congress better than the career politicians who are sending our country down the drain with their unbelievable debt and future ruinous inflation?

If we all NEVER REELECT anyone in Congress for three or four election cycles, we would change Congress forever, and for the better.
Try it. You’ll like it. I promise!

I’m Nelson Lee Walker of tenurecorrupts.com

I’m coming around to the idea that the bulk of the American people are basically stupid, stupid, stupid! Why?

How else can we explain how Congress, which has a 9% approval rating, gets reelected about 95% of the time? Do we ever “throw the bums out”?

Listen to these stats:Senate: As of 2008, of 100 Senators, 39 (39%) reelected for 18 yrs or more, 4 over 40 years!

House: As of 2008, of 435 members, 143 (33%) reelected for 14 yrs or more, 5 over 36 years!

And the longer these guys are in office, the more of them will run unopposed in future elections, since nobody will bother to challenge them. Unopposed races have doubled in the last 20 years, from 40 to 80 seats.

And who is responsible for this sad state of affairs? YOU!!! Not your dumb neighbor. Not the media. Not the crooked political system. Just YOU, the typical stupid American! The guy who complains how those crooked politicians are ripping off the country and sending us all down the tubes, and then reelects them!

YOU don’t seem to realize that YOU, and only YOU, have the power to clean up the whole system by simply NEVER REELECTing any Congressman or Senator. The good guys, the bad guys, all of them! NEVER REELECT them!

The beauty of this NEVER REELECT policy is that nobody can stop you from voting the bums out! They can stop you from voting for term limits, but they can’t stop you from imposing term limits by a NEVER REELECT policy.

I hope this short video will get you up off your dumb ass to prove that you aren’t one of those stupid Americans.

Always vote, but NEVER REELECT! If we do this for 2 or 3 elections in a row, I promise you, we will suddenly see a truly new and effective Congress.

Now GO DO IT!

So I made myself a commitment to start a campaign to “Tro Da Bums Out!” (All of them)

First, I looked at Term Limits. Since 75% of Americans want term limits for Congress, I thought it would be easy. But... we need to get a bill for term limits thru Congress FIRST, which ain’t never gonna happen!

Then I looked at Article V of the Constitution, which says that “the people” could have a “convention for proposing amendments”. But this was already tried by Bill Walker of www.foavc.org, and bounced by the Supreme Court in 2004, erroneously (imho), and should be attempted again. But we should wait for a more ‘originalist’ court.

Finally, after listening to many website discussions on this topic, I have come to realize that there is one unstoppable, foolproof method of achieving the goal of reforming Congress. Simply put, we voters must never reelect anyone in Congress.

If enough voters stick to this simple principle thru several election cycles, reelections in Congress would plummet. This would have a major impact on the behavior of all incumbents remaining in Congress. Furthermore, the many freshmen elected in such a changed election climate would have no doubt that they will be serving very brief terms unless they vote as responsible legislators instead of party hacks. And they would be much more likely to vote for a term limits amendment bill just to serve more than one term.

The big question is: How do we get Americans to stop reelecting their lousy Congress? We don’t have to succeed 100%. Just enough to drop House reelections from its current 98% down to about 65%. That’ll get their attention!

When the media talks about the new trend, many, many people who haven’t been voting will start voting again because they’ll see they can make a difference.

A second question will be: Who should I vote for if I don’t want to reelect my incumbent? Suggestions for both Democrats or Republicans:

1. If your guy was opposed in your primary, and lost, vote for the guy who beat him.
2. If he was opposed in the primary, and won, vote for the other major party guy.
3. If the other major party guy also won an unopposed primary, then vote for whoever can beat him.

What we want is a 100% turnover in Congress, on BOTH sides of the aisle, regardless of party!

Remember the objective here is to defeat all incumbents of both major parties, so the simplest decision is to vote for the most likely non-incumbent winning candidate. Or, when in doubt, vote ‘em out!

The Silent Consensus interviews Nelson Lee Walker of tenurecorrupts.com
Part One Part Two Comment

Data constructed from the booklet “Congress At Your Fingertips” published by capitoladvantage.com

IN SUMMARY: 110th Congress

Senate: As of 2008, 100 Senators, 17 have been in office for 30 years or more , and 22 more have been there for 18 to 30 years. (total 39%, 18 yrs or more, 4 over 40 years) 110th Senate List

House: As of 2008, 435 Representatives, 35 have been in office for 26 years or more , and 108 more have been there for 14 to 24 years. (total 33% 14 yrs or more, 5 over 36 years)110th House List

Consider this: The longer these guys are in office, the more of them will run unopposed for reelection, since nobody will bother to challenge them. Unopposed races have doubled in the last 20 years, from 40 to 80seats.
See attached chart.

In other words, it appears that already, election to Congress will be as good as getting elected for life! Soon, there will be no point in having elections for Congress unless an incumbent dies or goes to jail.

This is NOT what the Founders intended! And it is certainly not what clear-thinking Americans are willing to accept! You can help to avoid this imminent dictatorship of the Congress by joining one or more of the following organizations to help put pressure on Congress to pass a Congressional Term Limits Amendment.
voidnow.org
termlimits.com
tenurecorrupts.com
iandrinstitute.org
givecongressback.com
goooh.com
one-simple-idea.com
no-incumbents.org
congressionaltermlimits.net
And above all, NEVER REELECT ANYONE in Congress, regardless of party, UNTIL WE GET THAT CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS AMENDMENT!

Those are the only two ways allowed by the Constitution to propose amendments.

Therefore it is left to us, the people, to conduct our own de facto term limits, at the ballot box.

It is a very simple strategy, to wit: NEVER REELECT ANY OF THEM.

Starting now, in the 2008 election, make sure you vote, but do NOT vote for ANY incumbent, only for challengers, whether you like them or not, whether they are your party or not. Always vote, but NEVER REELECT anyone.If we do this for two or three elections, the whole character of Congress will begin to change for the better. Budgets will get balanced, earmarks will end, problems will get solved, waste will be reduced, party loyalties will give way to “doing the right thing” for the country.

The longer we keep it up, the greater the power returned to we, the people. Compared to today, what have we got to lose? Start NEVER REELECT now.

There was a time when I was generally and proudly optimistic about the prospects for our country. But the growth of an irresponsible, liberally biased media, the incompetent ever-growing leviathan of government, and the essentially permanent self-serving Congress, has turned me into a desperate ‘extremist’, calling for all voters to ‘Never Reelect’ anyone in Congress, lest we continue our descent into a ‘Dictatorship of the Congress’.

It makes little difference who wins the Presidency. It is in Congress where the problems lie!

I can think of no rational alternative to ‘Never Reelect’ any congressperson, since Congress has a lock on preventing Term Limits on itself.

A congressional seat is now so attractive, and essentially permanent, that they will fight tooth and nail to get reelected forever, eventually retiring as mult-millionaires!

Reelection rates have reached 98%. As a result, voter participation is down to 45%. Most people who want to vote against incumbents drop out, because of the high reelection rate, which then increases the percentage of voters who vote for incumbents, thereby guaranteeing reelections.

In the meantime, major national issues such as unbalanced budgets vs multi-trillion dollar debt, forbidden energy production while gasoline approaches $5/gal, plunging educational scores, etc, continue to sit on the backburners of an irresponsible Congress.

But they won’t act on these and other issues because the special interests, who fund their reelection campaigns, would be upset. On the other hand, the American people, who are demoralized by the resulting economic slowdown, vicious partisanship, and loss of national self-esteem, are confused, unorganized, and don’t know what to do.

THE ANSWER: The American people need to electorally slaughter the Congress (on both sides of the aisle) with a one-time 100% turnover to show Congress that the people are the boss!

What we need is a popular uprising, such as a ‘Do Not Reelect Any Congressman’ campaign, which will inflict wholesale damage on the incumbency in Congress, to show them that the American people are still in charge, NOT the special interests.

Any idiot can see that we, the voters, are our own worst enemy, when we deliberately keep reelecting incumbents, over and over again, when it is these very incumbents who are letting our country go down the tubes! It is not just that “my guy is OK, but not your guy”! They are ALL bums!

Congress should be a brief civic duty, NOT a career!

Never reelect anyone in Congress (at least until they give us term limits)

So let’s throw them all out! At least once, in 2008, and maybe again in 2010, 2012, and 2014. That’ll learn ‘em!
Maybe the freshmen who replace them will let us have Term Limits!

This is the 2008 political season. It is the time to think seriously about how and whether we are going to vote. And particularly about our votes for the people in Congress.

Judging by its poll ratings (about 9% favorable), it is arguably one of the worst Congresses ever. Yet, if we go by the current trend, close to 98% of them will be reelected! How to explain this?

The reasons are simple and fundamental:
1. The voters who want to vote for challengers never win, and so they stop voting.
2. The voters who vote for incumbents always win, so they keep voting.
3. As a result, only 45% of Americans vote, mostly for incumbents, so incumbents win 98% of the time.

To fix it, Always vote, never vote for incumbents. In other words, NEVER REELECT CONGRESSMEN!

Nelson Lee Walker of tenurecorrupts.com

(By the way, who made the Earth’s ‘Ice Age’ go away? It sure wasn’t 'Man' !)

The American people are not dumb, but the steady drumbeat of environmentalist strategy to thwart the harvest of energy resources has had its effect, especially on the career politicians in Congress, who rely on the financial and electoral support of this special interest to get reelected forever.

There is little question that the country is suffering a dire shortage of leadership, a shortage of people who are willing to confront these enviros, who don’t feel a need to be ‘liked’ by their peers, and who are willing to take a ‘pro-energy’ position which might cause them to be attacked by fanatical liberals and ‘greens’.

Free market principles AND ample energy supplies is what enables this country to continue to lead the world in prosperity, standard of living, technology, medical progress, low unemployment, etc. Without cheap, plentiful energy, our advances will shrivel into a mediocre, even backward, way of life.I have nothing against wind, solar, etc, but they will always be puny, almost negligible, compared to what the future will need.

One of the principal areas of activity stifling our country’s overall vigor is the ever expanding federal government and its leviathan of regulatory bureaucracy, (e.g. EPA), of which the restriction of energy development is a prime example of how our creeping loss of liberty is a drag on American progress.

The chief villain in this story is the US Congress, which creates and empowers the stifling bureaucracies, and which has long since been corrupted into two chambers of sinecures, where the principal occupation of its members is to guarantee perpetual reelection and lifelong tenure, the well-being of the country be damned.So how to end this shortage of leadership? I suggest one way: create a 100% turnover in the US Congress in the next few elections.

Since Congress is a key factor in proposing laws, policy, and debates in our country, and provides its members with the visibility to reach all the people (thru C-span TV), shouldn’t we strive to make it available to citizen legislators instead of career political hacks?

I’ll bet that 535 freshmen in Congress would be a great seedbed of REAL leadership! And how do we do that? Simply never reelect anyone in Congress!

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code. Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy. Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.

I excluded all but the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

A CONFIDENCE CONSPIRACY
Don't you see how the con game that is played on the people by the politicians? Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common 'con' regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of Tip O'Neill, who stood up and criticized Ronald Reagan for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating appropriations and taxes. O'Neill is the speaker of the House. He is the leader of the majority party. He and his fellow Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetos it, they can pass it over his veto.

REPLACE SCOUNDRELS
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns, that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.

When you fully grasp the plain truth that these 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Marines are in Lebanon, it's because they want them in Lebanon.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take it.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exist disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people and they alone are responsible. They and they alone have the power. They and they alone should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided they have the gumption to manage their own employees.

Our dysfunctional Congress is the direct result of an apathetic voter population, which in turn, is the direct result of the absence of term limits.

Voters who really want an effective, responsible Congress, are turned off from voting because they feel voting is a meaningless exercise, since Congress is chock full of permanent, careerist, professional politicians, who are principally concerned with reelection first, good government last.

These politicians don’t want to do a civic duty. They only want a well paid job, which has generous benefits, no boss, is non-accountable, has a large staff, many perquisites, and possible lifetime tenure. And to get this, all they have to do is ‘con’ voters into always reelecting them.

Toward this end, the incumbents carefully manage their voting records and speeches to nurture the special interest groups who give them the most financial and electoral support for the next election.

And they are succeeding. Reelection rates for the House are 98%, the Senate is 90%. So the responsible voter says “What’s the use?”, and doesn’t vote.

In the early 1900’s, reelections averaged in the 60% range
In the 1960’s, House reelections averaged about 90%, voter turnout was about 62%, .
After 2000, House reelections reached 98%, voter turnout was down to about 50%.
I predict that when reelection rates reach 100%, voter turnout will plunge to below 35%.
And Congress will still stand rock-solid against term limits!

That will be the beginning of the end of our liberty, and our once great republic.

There is only one way to correct this slide into national oblivion. It requires the American voter to take back Congress.

We can do it, simply. It only requires determination.

First, we must, all of us, always vote, in every election. We must raise voter turnout from the current 50% level to over 80%. In every Congressional election.

Second, and most importantly, we must never reelect incumbents. Good or bad. We must always vote for challengers. Also good or bad. We must give up our party and incumbent loyalties, and concentrate on achieving a 100% turnover in Congress. We can do it in 3 elections. The whole House and 1/3 of the Senate is up every two years.

In reality, only a substantial partial success is required. When the media and the pols see the trend, they will panic. And new freshmen, seeing the trend, will then vote the way the voters want them to vote.

We can always go back to voting for our party and a favorite candidate AFTER we take back the Congress and install Term Limits. If we don’t win this battle soon, we will eventually no longer have any choice on who to vote for. We’ll have a fully permanent Congress. And it will be our fault!

I'm Nelson Lee Walker of tenurecorrupts.com

(Note: Only 40-50% of our citizens vote in any given Federal election. This piece is directed to the millions of Americans who don’t vote because they’ve given up on our crummy politics):

The most repeated word this political season is “Change!” The trouble is that it is only being applied to the presidential races, where change is going to happen anyway, thanks to term limits, no matter who wins.

Where “Change” REALLY needs to happen is in Congress, where things never change, regardless of who wins or loses, on either side of the aisle.

Do you realize that the reelection rate in the House is over 98%? In the Senate it is over 90%, and it has been that way for years. Kennedy(MA) and Dingle(MI) have both been there for over 50 years! 50 years! And many of their colleagues are catching up with them in tenure.

Nowadays, getting reelected just a couple of times paves the way toward lifetime tenure. Who said that lifetime tenure was just for Supreme Court Justices? Or lousy college professors? And to make matters worse, Congress refuses to let anyone propose term limits on Congress, even tho’ 80% of the American people favor term limits on Congress. Some people oppose term limits, saying that “We already have limits, they are called elections!”

OK, I say, let’s use elections to do it. Simply NEVER REELECT anyone in Congress. Don’t let anyone serve more than ONE term! We can only get a citizen Congress and fresh ideas, and solutions, AFTER we get rid of the career politicians in Congress. Career politicians will finally disappear when voters allow only one term in Congress.

Is this too drastic a step? Got a better idea for real change? Well, a voter’s gotta do what a voter’s gotta do!

So how do we make “Change” happen in Congress? Simple! Just NEVER REELECT any Congressman or Senator. Never reelect ANYONE in Congress. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Throw the bums out after one term!

And how do we make that happen? Simple! Always vote, in every election, but always vote for challengers . Never, never vote for incumbents. Regardless of promises, platforms, or who will have the majority.

Remember, to get rid of the alligators, we must first drain the swamp!

If you don’t have a challenger in your regular party, vote for the next best challenger in any other party. Even if you have to hold your nose while doing it. Just NEVER REELECT any incumbent Senator or Congressman. Never!

After 3 or 4 election cycles, when Congress notices that election turnout is UP, but reelection rates are DOWN, they’ll get the message, and maybe give us term limits, just so that they can serve more than one term!

You can help by sending this message to all your friends and acquaintances. Frequently. (Repetition is the key!) We need everybody to vote in every election, BUT... they must always vote for challengers. Never vote for incumbents! No matter how much it hurts! NEVER REELECT anyone!

080316 A REVOLUTION TO TAKE BACK THE US CONGRESS (text)
by Nelson Lee Walker of tenurecorrupts.com

I am proposing that we create a popular, bloodless, political revolution in our country.

I believe that it is very necessary, very possible, and very doable.

The object of this revolution is the destruction of the professional political class which currently dominates and corrupts the US Congress.

I am convinced, as are many, many voters, that the bulk of our country’s political problems arises out of this ‘permanent’ Congressional political class, and their devotion to party power and to the financial special interests keeping them in power.

There is a simple way for voters to create this revolution: That way is to...NEVER REELECT any Congressional incumbent, anytime, in the House or the Senate, good guys or bad, in either party. Just NEVER REELECT!

It can be done easily and at no cost. All it takes is a national email campaign by all voters, getting their friends, and their friends, and their friends, to send out this NEVER REELECT message, frequently, thru out 2008, 2010, and 2012, and maybe longer...Just NEVER REELECT!

If we succeed in doing this for two or three election cycles, we would sharply reduce the rate of successful reelections from over 98% in the House. Similarly in the Senate. This leaves room for and encourages ‘citizen’ legislators. It would break the back of the permanent professional class, and allow ‘citizen’ legislators, using the Internet, without the help of special interests, to run for and win office.

The resulting larger contingent of freshman Congresspeople would enable us to call for term limits of
“6 Years and Out”, and for publicly funded federal elections. Both of these changes would keep the professional politicians and their financial backers on the sidelines for a long, long time.

Let’s do it!
(Note to all readers: Please feel free to use this message, with or without attribution, for any purpose.) .
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080310 NEVER REELECT YOUR CONGRESSMAN (text)
by nels96 submitted to Digg

As my contribution toward being a good American, instead of sitting on my butt while everything goes to hell around me in this 2008 election, I am going to try to convince you all that it would be a good idea to never reelect your current Congressman. And I mean NEVER, as in “never reelect the incumbent!”

I don’t really care who wins the presidency this time around. I believe that our country is in serious political trouble every which way from Sunday, not because of either Democrats or Republicans, but because of BOTH. And it is because our Congress and our politics is in the grip of an arrogant political class of both parties which is more interested in holding on to their cushy jobs as a career, as opposed to doing the right things for the country.

If the American public would only realize this, and stop reelecting professional pols, they could destroy that political ‘class’, and permit more citizen legislators to run for office.

I fully realize that for many this is a very unpalatable move, since it only serves to give the opposing party the advantage. But think of it this way: They are all professional politicians, on both sides, seeking only to get elected as a job, a career, a livelihood, NOT to do a civic duty to pass good legislation.

Elective public service is not like any ordinary occupation where your employer holds you directly responsible for your performance, and can reward you or fire you accordingly, at will. In a political office it is extremely difficult to perform so badly that it will be obvious to the public that you should be voted out, and that can only happen every 2, 4, or 6 years. By that time the voter has forgotten the bad things about you, and getting reelected is easy.

Remember, elected officials have the power to affect all our lives, in many, many ways. Although they are OUR ‘employees’, we cannot hire or fire them directly. It takes an unwieldy election process, with no clear-cut issues, only shades of opinion. Career pols rely on such gray areas to stay in office.

Therefore, public office should not be permitted to be a career occupation. Public office should only be a temporary civic duty, available to those public-spirited individuals who are willing to leave their regular livelhoods for a short time, in order to do ‘the people’s business’ and to enhance good government.

In other words, Congress should be term limited.Since Congress will never pass term limits on itself, we have to do it ourselves.And to do it, we simply have to NEVER REELECT ANY CONGRESSMAN !!!
•••••••••••••••••••••••
Please forward this message to your whole addressbook, repeatedly thru 2008, to urge all your friends to stop reelecting ALL incumbent Congressmen.

For a free ‘NEVER REELECT’ bumper sticker, send your PO address to nels96@gmail.comThe number of websites which promote the reform of Congress by eliminating permanent professional politicians is growing steadily. Some sites are much more interesting than mine. Here are a few if them:

http://www.KickThemAllOut.com
http://www.samadamsalliance.org           http://www.voidnow.org
http://www.termlimits.com                      http://www.goooh.com
http://www.tenurecorrupts.com               http://www.foavc.or

An incumbent who seeks re-election cannot freely vote his conscience, or his principles, for fear that he is going to offend some slice of the electorate, reducing his chances of re-election.

Obviously,one way to correct this problem is to reduce or eliminate eligibility for re-election. In other words, establish either a one or two term limit on all offices in government.

In all the the noise from the pundits, editorialists, and bloggers about the significance of any election, nowhere does anyone address the the most obvious characteristic - that the bulk of the failings of our American electoral system is due to careerism and long tenure in the body politic, particularly in Congress.

No one has stood up and yelled “It’s about re-elections, stupid! Not issues!"

In the desperate struggle to hold on to their extremely ‘cushy’ jobs, career politicians will vote, not on principle or merit, but on their ‘re-election odds’ only.Those that do it successfully, go on to lifelong tenure (e.g. Byrd, Kennedy,Stevens, Domenici, et al). Those who try to hold to principle invariably serve very short terms.

In other words, if your first concern is re-election, rather than the what is best for the country, you reap the rewards of a long tenure. Is this any way to run a country?

The fundamental reason we need Congressional Term Limits is simply that Congress is no longer doing its job. Instead, it is working very hard at keeping its job.

Of the many issues actually ‘debated’ by Congress , most have been so chewed up, amended, and emasculated, that they are often not worth the paper they are written on. Congress will do anything it can to avoid making clear-cut decisions to get good legislation, in order not to offend or lose the voters they need for re-election.

Some people would say that’s the way a democracy works, and to some degree that's true, but that's an oversimplification.

Rather, what we are seeing is a Congressional class which is overwhelmingly committed to re-election first, all other considerations, especially good governance, last. This is true on both sides of the aisle.

The best evidence of this is the fact that in two recent (‘02, ‘04) elections, Congressional incumbents won re-election at a 99% rate. Before 50 years ago, that rate was about 50-60%. Do you really believe that 99% of incumbents deserved re-election ? In two successive elections?

How this has come about can be understood by examining Congressional voting patterns on the major issues in our current political environment, all of which are now routine, and all of which have arisen during the last part of the 20th century, as Congress has learned how to ‘game the system’. For example, and the following applies to both sides of the aisle :

• They don’t reform Soc Sec to get personal retirement accounts. They might lose voters for re-election

• They don’t reform health care to get personal medical accounts. They might lose voters for re-election

• They don’t stop earmarks, because they want to spend federal money for local votes for re-election

• They don’t vote school choice, because they want teacher’s union money for re-election

• They don’t vote for tort reform, because they want lawyer money for re-election

• They don’t vote for right-to-work, because they want union money for re-election

• They don’t want computer neutral redistricting, because they want safe seats for re-election

• They don’t deregulate campaign financing with instant disclosure, because they lose contributors for re-election

• They won’t lower taxes, because they won’t be able to vote irresponsible ‘goodies’ for re-election

• They won’t reduce the size of government, because that would reduce their control of voters for re-election

• Last,but not least, Congressional office has become a career livelihood, which is in itself, a conflict of interest, because incumbents become more interested in holding on to the job than passing good legislation.

Unlimited reelections should not be allowed. A great many state and local legislative offices are already term limited.

Why not Congress ???

In 1995, the newly victorious Republican majority in the House of Representatives, intent on displaying their ‘integrity’ on the matter of meeting their campaign promise to pass Congressional Term Limits, pulled a cunning, sleazy stunt.They brought to the floor for ‘debate’, a number of different forms of term limits bills, so that various House members could each vote ‘FOR’ one or another of the bills, demonstrating that they were fulfilling their promise to ‘try’ to get term limits passed in the House, yet certain in the fact that no specific bill would gather the 2/3 majority to pass.

That fraudulent political trick teaches us the need to decide in advance how a Congressional Term Limit Amendment should be worded or constructed, and that we must focus on a single version of the bill to be voted on, to prevent Congress from pulling that stunt the next time around. That’s what I want to talk about today.

During the past year I have been mulling around a variety of term liimit formats,and have slowly come ‘round to the thinking that perhaps the fundamental problem which provokes us to call for Congressional Term Limits is that the single-minded pursuit by our professional politicians for reelection success (now at 99%!), makes it very clear that all their behavior, demonstrated by their TV face time, their name-recognition efforts, their childish fingerpointing both ways across the aisle, makes us wonder if any real legislating is going on.

As a matter of fact, more and more stories are beginning to come out about Congress not even reading most of the bills they vote on, only relying on their staffs to tell them which way to vote so that their reelection is more assured. In other words, “It’s the reelections, stupid!”

If this is so, and I firmly believe that it is, then it appears that we, the voters, have to consider the virtue of making all legislative offices single term jobs, or close to it. Under such circumstances, the incumbent legislator would be substantially free of any concern for reelection, which frees him from having to cozy up to various special interests for donations to his reelection campaign fund. Thus, much more legislation might be determined on its merits for the country, instead of who is paying for it.

Of course, during his single term he can certainly cultivate special interest donations to use in his next campaign for some other job, but it certainly is going to be far more difficult to make bribed promises for a nebulous ‘next run’.This would be very close to eliminating politics as a “career’ type of job, a truly worthy goal.

This then brings us to the question of how the House and Senate should be term limited. For the Senate, which already serves for 6 years per term, a single term appears to be a sufficiently long enough period to do a sound job, and then to move on. Obviously, when all Senators are single termers, seniority goes out the window, merit and principle get a reasonable chance to shine, and better legislation results. Enough said!

For the House on the other hand, the 2 year constitutional term is painfully brief. This is the so-called ‘people’s house’, where the Founders decided to make seats turn over relatively frequently so as to force representatives to be more in touch with the voters. We might consider two alternatives: one way could be to lengthen the single term to make it more worthwhile office to seek; or a second way could be to allow it to be a 2 year term , 3 term limit, a reasonable compromise.To lengthen the single term to 3, 4, or 6 years would make the ‘people’s house’ too similar to the Senate, destroying its chief distinction from the Senate. Therefore, I would opt for the second alternative of allowing the House to be a reelectable seat for a maximum 3 terms.

In summary, I suggest that the Congressional Term Limit Amendment be worded as follows:"Members of the Senate shall serve for a maximum of one term of 6 years. Members of the House shall serve a term of 2 years, and may be reelected for a maximum of 3 terms."

Remember, our president is term limited, more and more governors are term limited, more and more state legislatures are term limited, as are a great many city councils and mayors.

Here are some of the reasons why Congresspeople so fiercely oppose term limits.
Put very simply, it is because the job is extremely ‘cushy’, and cannot be matched elsewhere.

1. It offers a nice salary, about $160, 000/year, plus expenses, with guaranteeed annual increases.
2. It offers the best health benefits available, generously subsidized. (small co-pay)
3. It offers luxurious pension benefits, generously subsidized (long service gets near salary for life)
4. It offers opportunities for free vacations anywhere in the world, usually more than once/yr.
5. It offers the opportunity to be reelected 'forever' (99%+ in the 2004 election).
6. It offers the opportunity to work (or not work) without supervision.
7. It provides a staff/budget to do the ‘work’, e.g. meet constituents, write/read(or not) bills, help reelection, etc.
8. It provides the opportunity to wield ‘power’ (most important for the many ego-driven)
9. It provides the option to hire family members at generous salaries.
10. It provides opportunities for the less scrupulous to become truly wealthy.

I believe this list leaves very little room for an incumbent to nobly claim he is being a ‘public servant’. Don't you think this list alone more than justifies a Congressional Term Limits Amendment ? I certainly do!

I'm Nelson Lee Walker, and I'm gonna keep pluggin' for Congressional Term Limits. Please join me.
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