Senator Bayh and Fixing Congress

So, one of big political stories right now is about Senator Bayh (D-Indiana) deciding not to seek reelection this fall.  He said that he was sick of the partisanship, and he wanted to do something else, where he might be able to make a difference.  Like work at a non-profit.  (Woo-hoo!  This is what I wanted to do, too.  And Dan works at one, now.)

There is an email that has been circulating (I've gotten it more than once, and maybe you have, too) about "how to fix Congress"--setting term limits, making congressmen and women use public health care, social security, and restraining their pay increases.  It also says that serving in Congress should be a privilege, not a long term career choice--which for many people it is.  And why not?  Incumbents have a greater chance of reelection.  And Congress operates on a seniority system for committees, so you almost have to be there for several terms if you want to really affect the way policy is developed.

Here is a senator who is self imposing the term limit suggested in the email.  A responsible decision, considering his feelings about Congress.  I read a review of the response to Senator Bayh's announcement in the Washington Post, and this one stood out to me:

"'If in fact he believed that the Senate was broken and dysfunctional, then he had a responsibility to stand and man the pumps rather than run for the lifeboat,'" said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University."


This is exactly the type of mentality that allows people to stay in Congress indefinitely.  Senator Bayh is leaving because he is sick of the party politics, and the main response to his leaving is party politics.  'No, don't leave, we'll lose our majority and the Republicans will ruin everything!' 

So, I do think that some of the restraints in the email are a good idea.  Congress shouldn't be your career.  If there was a better chance of turn-over in Congress, even if because of term limits, then the Congressmen and women would be more accountable to the people.  Now, people only learn about decisions in Congress they wouldn't like of their particular Representative or Senator if challengers or special interest groups take it upon themselves to make it an issue.  If there were term limits, candidates would have to convince the people that they would represent them correctly.  Maybe people still wouldn't pay a lot of attention to decisions in Congress, but ever few years they would have to decide what they wanted from a candidate.  Which would give both parties, or possibly the new non-party, the Tea-baggers, a chance to make it to Washington.