Politics - Political careers

To continue my thoughts on politics, I thought that I would tackle one of the problems that I see that is systematic and irrelevant of political affiliation.  This problem is the lifelong politician.  This is the person who's sole purpose in life is to be in politics.  They might have started off local, then they grew up into maybe the state legislature, possibly a governor, then to congress and maybe even the president.  The problem isn't that this person has dedicated their life to politics, that, on the surface appears to be a noble purpose.  The problem is when these people stagnate in a position and are essentially senator or representative for life.  I'm not going to name any names but it wouldn't take much to figure out who these people are.  They're from both parties, they're both men and women and they're all equally guilty.  These people have found themselves in a position where they really don't have to do too much and they can basically rule by tenure and their circle of power.  They don't do anything to shake things up, in spite of their occasional fiery speech about the present administration or their counter party across the aisle.  It's all talk.  They don't actually do anything that might upset the balance.  They're a leach, living off the host, supposedly placed there for some sort of benefit but really just sucking the life out of it.

I do think that there is a solution.  It's very simple and would be completely rejected by these people.  Term limits.  If representatives and senators were limited to 1 or 2 terms, it would clear out these lifetimers.  There would be less focus on re-election and more focus on getting things done.  Because they would only have a limited time to create a legacy (or whatever you want to call it), they would need to begin work immediately.  They couldn't sit around for 20, 30 or more years and do essentially nothing and be known by their longevity.  If we really want change, we need to change the people, not just the party in charge.  

Politics - general thoughts

OK, I generally try to stay away from politics because, well, frankly, they drive me nuts.  My general sentiment for politicians is that they all suck, I don't trust them and they'll say anything to get elected.  I see lots of things wrong with our political system and government in general, but nobody has the guts to stand up and do anything about it.  When someone does, they get annihilated by the people that do play the political game and so they never get anywhere.  The constant win theme for politicians is 'Change'.  As if to imply that somehow they will change Washington.  I'm not sure why, but this seems to work.  For some reason, people seem to forget that the very people that preach change are the same ones that have been in government and have progressed the status quo.  When these changers get into office, they all turn into regular politicians.  The Republicans got in by saying that there was need for change after Clinton and now the Democrats will probably win because of Bush and in 4 or 8 years, whoever loses now will probably get in because 'we need change!'.  I think it's basically a bunch of crap.  

The people in power say that whoever's not in power is blocking their initiatives and the people that aren't in power say that they can't do anything because they don't have the power, but if they did, things would be different.  I call shenanigans.  I think that it's a scam.  No matter who's in power, nothings going to change.  They're all there for one reason, to continue to be there.  As soon as they get in, they start planning how they can stay in.  They really don't care about making new legislation that is going to actually change anything.  What if they made a change and didn't get re-elected??  Instead, they're perfectly happy not passing things and blaming someone else for it.  I don't think that it's a political party issue, I think that it's a system issue.  Politics has been overrun by politicians.  This is not a new scenario and nothing that I'm rambling on about is earth shattering.  It's all so fake that it's ridiculous and laughable.