Churning the Political Class

In the United States, there is a political class. Although individuals are elected into power, once in office they learn to use the levers of their office to keep themselves in office.

Incumbents have tremendous advantage over outsiders. They have name recognition. They have government resources. They are able to dispense favors to supporters. Incumbents are 80%-90% likely to be re-elected, depending on which statistics you use.

There are many problems with incumbency. Government is isolating by its very nature. Incumbents talk to each other as much as their constituents. There is danger of groupthink and an ever growing distance from the electorate. An incumbent who is running for re-election is being paid by taxpayers. Why are taxpayers paying people to collect campaign donations? Shouldn't incumbents be working on solutions to the problems society faces? Not necessary making laws but definitely working on solutions.

We need a Constitutional Amendment, an Anti-Incumbency Amendment.

What would such an amendment do?

Politicians would not be allowed to run for re-election while in office. They would focus on their term of office and do the work that the voters elected them to do. The trappings of the office could not be used for re-election. An intervening politician would be able to inspect the business of his predecessor. The voters would have time to examine the record of a previous office holder.

At least one year must elapse between the end of a term and the beginning of another term in office. This would prevent a politician from moving from office to office consecutively. A politician must spend at least a year out of office before assuming another elected office.

A politician may not serve in an appointed office while attempting a run at an elected office.

As a corollary sub-amendment, politicians would not be allowed to support anyone running for office. Yes, this is a restriction on free speech but it would be a right given up only while in office.

At the very least, the political class should double. More likely it would expand beyond even that as politicians moved on to careers other than politics. In the case of Presidents we would be likely to see politicians run in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. In each iteration, a little smarter and wiser. Why should we only get a President for one 8 year stretch? The same applies to Senators and Congressmen. In each iteration we should see growth in wisdom.