It's terrific and refreshing when any prominent political figure endorses or vows to work for term limits for members of the U.S. Congress, as former President Trump did the other day.
As Convention of States Action volunteers and leaders realize, the first clause of Article V of the U.S. Constitution permits Congress to pass proposals for amendments.
Congress will never do any such thing.
Do you think that the presumptive Speaker of the House of Representatives will introduce a constitutional amendment limiting how often an individual can return to Congress? Or enthusiastically move such a proposal along? His longevity and ability to trade on name recognition and who-knows-what-else have enabled him to reach this longstanding personal goal.
If U.S. senators who purport to fight for the original intent of the Founders were truly concerned about the concentration of power in the few or "elite," would Mitch McConnell be returning as leader?
The mindset of career politicians who are entrenched inside the Beltway was long ago demonstrated to me in sharp relief by a man who would one day become Dean of the House of Representatives. It's a lesson I have never forgotten.
In the mid-1990s, I was fortunate enough to twice intern with then-U.S. Congressman John Dingell of Michigan. Mr. Dingell was first elected to the House in a special election in 1955 following the death of his father, who had held the seat since 1933. Upon the younger Dingell's retirement, his wife (now widow) won the seat and holds it to this day.
During my internship, Mr. Dingell set aside one hour of his time, invited me into his office, shut the door, and said, "Ask me anything you like."
The conversation turned to his long career in the House. I asked him why, during his time in Washington, had he never run for the U.S. Senate from Michigan. After all, the Senate is considered the "upper chamber," and seemed to me to be much more exclusive and high-profile.
As he bluntly and honestly put it, "I am not interested in a demotion."
I was puzzled. He elaborated.
At the time of this conversation, Mr. Dingell was the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Nearly a third of all of the bills proposed in the House went through his committee.
As chair, he directed a large staff with legal counsel (in addition to his own House staff), decided what hearings to conduct and when, which titans of an industry he could bring in to testify and question, and which of all of those bills would make it out of committee. His power was enormous, and it had come about largely because he had been in Congress -- at that point -- for nearly 40 years.
"Why would I trade that to become a freshman senator with little or no influence?"
I realized that time is not only money. In Washington, time is power.
Whether John Dingell utilized that power for good or ill is for history to decide. Yet that would have been beside the point to the Founders of this Republic. They designed a government in order to prevent the concentration of power in one man or a few.
Strict prohibitions upon time served in Congress were not written into the Constitution because when it was framed, rotation in office was an observed tradition among members of Congress.
Individuals served and then went on to do something else with their lives, which may or may not have included electoral politics. One such person was a one-term congressman from Illinois called Abraham Lincoln.
As we have seen, not setting strict limits in the Constitution was a major oversight and a reminder that the Founders were not flawless. But Col. George Mason and the whole of the Constitutional Convention inserted the second clause of Article V -- without debate -- in order to give the people via their state legislatures a remedy to power and the power that corrupts.
While former President Trump's pledge to work for congressional term limits is heartening, he is unable to make it happen. But you are.
As Massachusetts State Director Michael Arnold recently wrote: "When people tell you they are watching announcements on television or social media looking for the person who will save our Nation... remind them that they will not find the person who will save the country on a computer or television screen... the person they seek to save the country is only to be found when they look in the mirror."
You have looked in the mirror and you know this to be true. That is why you signed the Convention of States petition. It is why you dedicate your time to the movement, and it is why you know that we must do the work with our state representatives and senators to curtail political careerism in Washington.
This must be done -- and likely will only be done -- via the second clause of Article V and a Convention of States.
Congress as presently constructed will never utilize the first, and no man or woman can make it happen alone. That is why the COS movement is so vital, as are your contributions to it.
