Term limits, conflict of interest and selg-aggrandization.
The Founding Fathers who wrote the Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, Artcles of Confederation and the Bill of Rights had much different ideas about these issues 300 years ago, then we due now.
A brief look at their ideas, we can see them, because they recorded their debates, discussions and conclusions in a 20 volume set of papers called The Federalist Papers. They apparently wrote Essays detailing their positions, read each others essays, heard each other speak and then voted to chose the best ideas, which would become these important documents: United States Constitution, Artcles of Confederation and the Bill of Rights.
Body
Term Limits
There is much talk of the need for term limits, as we stared down the barrow of a double gauge shotgun this year in American Politicis with our choices for the Leader of our nation both being the oldest candidates to ever run for the office.
This talk of course suffered from the usual partisan divide, as each side argued that Their candidtae over 80 was actually still sharp of mind
But to the non-partisan observer, that delicate balance between age or experience and youthful vigor, which helped us choose who would be the best leader, seemed quite out of balance towards the age or experience component.
Conflict of interest
The traditional reason, at least what I read in the essays written by the Founding Fathers of our nation for only serving one or at the most two terms in office, was that one's farm or business could only survive one term of complete neglect.
It seems the Founding Fathers had some outdated idea that to avoid conflict of interest one shouldn't run their farm or business for the duration of the Term of Service meaning the time spnt serving a political office. Only with this approach could complete honesty and Lack of Conflict of Interest be assured.
Self-aggrandization
Apparently, the Founding Fathers were very concerned with not just impropriety, but even the appearance of impropriety, when it comes to Self-Aggrandization, which they defined as the enrichment of one self through one's involvement in Government Service.
The Founders of Our Nation apparently felt that any successful businessman could not help but help themselves, if they were still running their farm or business while serving their Term of Service which meant their Term in Government Office.
So they literally abandoned their farms and businesses, and had limited communication with their families and the people they chose to run these entities in their absence.
We must remember that 300 years ago, the only communication was the Pony Express which was literally letters carried by horseback. Which could take months or in the case of a country our size a year for letters to reach the West Coast from the East Coast.
In stark contrast to our current politicians, who go into office broke, and come out of office millionaires, it was not unusual for our Public Officials to suffer great financial setbacks, such as the loss of their farms or failure of their businesses, while they served their Term in Office.
Perhaps we should reconsider reinstituting some of these beliefs and ideas during our modern times, to reinstill trust and faith in our elected officials.
Conclusion
Putting it all together
During this election season we became acutely aware of one problem associated with the lack of term limits on our elected officials; they looked like they were to old to effectively govern.
The topic of term limits came up again, as people sought simple solutions to complex problems.
The Founding fathers dealt with these important issues of Term limits, Conflict of interest and Self-Aggrandization much differently, by creating a culture and concept of Public Service being a period of financial and personal sacrifice, which was often a financial sacrifice leading to the loss of ones livelihood, be it farm or business, so strict were their rules and ideas on impropriety, with regard to the last two items: Conflict of interest and Self-Aggrandization, that they never had to worry about the first item: Term Limits.
While I understand the concept of paying a living wage is important to insure a broaad spectrum of individuals serve in government, not just people wealthy enough not to work for two years, and sustain their home and support their family.
I think a reinstatement of strict rules regarding the later two issues of Conflict of Interest and Self-Aggrandization, would go along way towards reinstilling faith in the impartiality of our government.
And it could be what we need to return to a time when Government really was a time of Public Service, limited in scope due to the personal sacrifices our leaders had to make, instill of a actual Occupation or Profession.
