The longer a politician remains in office, the more experience he attains, and the more stature with fellow legislators. He knows the laws that have been passed. He knows who to reach out to in researching efforts. He knows how to work his bill through all the committees and which fellow legislators will help.
And, he learns his constituents better. He knows what they wanted 10 years ago, and he knows how that changed five years ago. He knows which constituents will throw a fuss, and he knows which ones won't. He knows why he once thought certain legislation was wise, and how he learned it wasn't.
No doubt, there are benefits in longevity.
But, there are also reasons why enough is enough, reasons why he or she shouldn't be allowed to camp out in office all their lives.
They build up debts, needing to return favors. They build up biases, getting stuck on their ways of thinking. Even though sometimes they learn from what does and doesn't work, more often they just stick with their established ways and biases, become more and more ingrained, never seeing the issue from a fresh perspective. They build up biases against fellow legislators. If Nancy Pelosi offends them on one issue, they might remain enemies towards her for the total of their time on the hill.
They always have tomorrow, so they are not pressed to get things done. They become more interested in getting re-elected than they are with tackling divisive issues.
Partisan politics feeds on the hatred that builds up between the legislators, the Republicans becoming more set in their hatred of Democrats and vice versa, whereas new legislators coming into office bring a clean slate of feelings towards the legislators they will be working with.
Term limits, then? Other pluses include the energy the new legislator brings, and the lack of yet having become corrupted by the system.
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