Qasim Rashid, Esq.

What if we had a 20/20 rule for elected office?
•Never more than 20 years in ALL elected office regardless of level AND
•As you reach 20 years from average life expectancy of all Americans, you become ineligible to run for re-election.

This would:
1. Prevent letting people make long-term policy on things that will never impact them
2. Create opportunities to elect new people for new generations
3. Incentivise actual improvement to healthcare, housing, & food to increase total life expectancy

Nov 3 at 6:18pmWeb
Show threadBlueDot🇺🇦Nov 3

@QasimRashid

If we had that rule, we'd exclude experienced people with good ideas, for a completely arbitrary reason.

There's no version of term limits that is any better than simply electing better candidates.

Show threadFlowermobNov 3
@BlueDot @QasimRashid But in the US with voter particiapation so low, how do you get better candidates elected. In the event the country survives the current coup attempt, will the Democrats actually prosecute the fuckers and change election rules to make it simple to vote so more people will vote? And will the FCC throw Fox and their christo-fascist talking heads off the air?
Show threadBlueDot🇺🇦Nov 3

@Flowermob @QasimRashid

Democratic candidates in every primary are going to have to support those things to get my support. And they'll have to support bringing in the #InternationalCriminalCourt to prosecute crimes against humanity, as well. To whatever extent the leadership won't support that, they can be gleefully replaced.

Making people quit when they're old isn't going to get us to those goals. We need all our oars in the water.

Show threadAndrew KimeryNov 3
@BlueDot @QasimRashid IIRC Missouri applied term limits at the state level 20-30yrs ago and it’s been a mess. Institutional knowledge is gone. Everyone is a lame duck in waiting so there’s less incentive to cooperate. Lawmakers are not beholden to their constituents since no matter how good of a job they do they will be ‘fired’. Lawmakers are also always focused on their next job (many times in the private sector) since they are on borrowed time. This is objectively worse.
Show threadJoe ❌👑Nov 3
@adkimery @BlueDot @QasimRashid Yes, state term limits have made groups like ALEC much more powerful. Rookie legislators don't know how to write legislation, so organizations like this will write beautifully crafted bills for them, bills that give everything to business. Term limits suck.
Show threadJoe ❌👑Nov 3
@QasimRashid Businesses would send off their people to work for government for a while, with a rich reward when they come back after enacting tax breaks and benefits for their patrons. Activists who aren't working for someone wealthy would have their careers limited, and many would be tempted to sell out and become lobbyists.
Show threadSeán FenianNov 3
@QasimRashid That's 20 years below, I assume?
Show threadSamUpstate (he/him)Nov 3

@QasimRashid I'm not wild about the first one. Many elected positions (school boards, town boards/councils, even most state legislatures) are part time, and it takes decades of experience in such bodies to become competent. You don't want to cap it that way.

Or did you mean no more than twenty years in any particular office, regardless of level? (Even there, I think you'd lose a lot of institutional knowledge, and surrender it to an unelected, professional advisor caste.)