What is a Good Federal Legislator?

The professional career, and for all practical purposes, lifelong federal legislators isn’t what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they penned the United States Constitution. The Founders intent was for citizens to step up and serve—let me repeat—to serve We the People in Congress for a short period of time to do the country’s business and then return to private life.

The Founders abhorred the thought of an elite class of rulers in perpetuity

The concept was that legislators should be close to their community and the real world. The Founders abhorred the thought of an elite class of rulers in perpetuity. Sadly, in 2024, We the People find ourselves with the very structure of a ruling class of legislators the Founding Fathers hoped to avoid.

Today’s United States Congress is made up largely of men and women whose first priority in life is to get re-elected for another term to remain on the golden teat of the federal government and the lobbyists who will fund their next election bid. By my definition, any member of Congress who is seeking re-election does not qualify as a good Congress man or woman. These people have been trapped by the corrupt uniparty system of money, money, money. By default, some of these members are better than others, but they have disqualified themselves as “good” when they bought into that corrupt swamp mindset.

"The more people who own little businesses of their own, the safer our country will be, and the better off its cities and towns; for the people who have a stake in their country and their community are its best citizens." ~ John Hancock

Hancock made an important point, and the same philosophy holds true when applied to legislators. The more legislators who come from ownership of a business to serve for a limited time, the safer our county will be and the better off its cities, towns, counties, and states. This type of legislators have a stake in their communities and will likely be its best citizens. The alternative is what America has today, an elite ruling class that only pays lip service to their voters, simply to get re-elected. These profession career politicians have lost any real connection to the community they supposedly serve.

Franklin D. Roosevelt scared even the Democrats after getting elected four times. Their fear was what would happen if a Republican could do the same thing, so Democrats led the fight to put term limits in place for the President. Many states have seen the light and put term limits in place for elected officials. Maybe it is time to terminate the federal legislative career path to force legislators to simply go to Washington and conduct the people’s business and nothing else. Maybe it is time to get back to the Founding Father’s roots as far as government goes.

Were I in a position to wave my magic wand, I would make it so a member of the House of Representatives would serve one four-year term. A member of the Senate would serve one six-year term. Regarding Senators, I would also repeal the 17^th Amendment to the Constitution, so that the state legislature would elect Senators to represent their state government, as originally designed by our Founding Fathers.

While waving that magic wand, I would also make it so a President served only one eight-year term. This too, would focus a President’s time on only doing the people’s business with no reelection distractions.

These measures would largely short circuit many of the opportunities for corruption that have been revealed by the criminal enterprises of the Bidens, Clintons, Obamas, and too many others to name in Congress. Incumbency of elected federal officials has been proven to be the enemy of We the People and the United States Constitution.