This article was originally posted on the blog of The Texas Minuteman.
Below is a list of the 101 longest-serving members of the House of Representatives.
Of the 101 members of this elite group, the average time served in Congress is 23 years, 8 months--the equivalent of almost 12 terms in office.
The longest-serving member (Don Young (R), Alaska) has been in office since March 1973 and has served a total of 47 years, 3 months.
The top 10 longest-serving members have served a combined total of 378 years, or an average of about 38 years each.
The total time served by all 101 members of this elite group is 2,388 years. Two-thousand. Three-hundred. Eighty-eight. Years.
There are 66 Democratic members and 35 Republican members of this group. Five of the top 10 members are Republicans and five are Democrats. The top four are all Republicans.
Nancy Pelosi is the eleventh longest-serving, having been in Congress for 33 years. Over two-thirds of these members were in office before today’s youngest voters were born.
Many of these members have never held a “real” job.
If there were ever a reason for term limits, it is these 101 individuals and others like them. Career politicians have no place in a government that is supposed to represent the will of We the People.
The longer they serve, the less they represent the people and the more they represent the special interest groups.
As Lord Acton so succinctly put it, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
I have no doubt that our federal government is corrupt to the core. The only organization that might be more corrupt is the Mafia, and I’m not sure about that. But at least we know whose interest they’re looking after.
I do not believe our Founding Fathers intended for our elected representatives to set up house in the capitol and stay for their entire adult life.
Representatives should be limited to a maximum of four terms (eight years). This is the same length of time that the President is limited to by the 22nd Amendment.
Unfortunately, Congress will never voluntarily impose term limits on themselves. Our only alternative is for We the People to impose term limits on them via an Article V Convention of States, which our Founding Fathers so wisely provided for in the Constitution.
If you aren’t familiar with a Convention of States, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with the Convention of States process and current status. Given the current state of affairs in this country, it may just be our last, best hope.
For the complete list of 101 members of Congress, see the original blog post.
