Why “Band-Aid” Fixes Like Term Limits and Campaign Finance Reform Always Fail. We the People Government Reform!

Why “Band-Aid” Fixes Like Term Limits and Campaign Finance Reform Always Fail

(And the One Change That Actually Works)

Every election cycle, the same two “reforms” get trotted out like magic cures:

1.  Term limits

2.  Campaign finance reform / “getting money out of politics.”

They poll at 75–85%. Candidates swear by them. Pundits call anyone who opposes them “corrupt.”

And ten years later… nothing has changed.

Why? Because both are sophisticated distractions, Band-Aids are slapped on a patient who is bleeding from an arterial wound. The wound is the revolving door and the lifetime profit motive built into public service. As long as that profit motive exists, elites will always find a way around any rule you write.

Let’s prove it.

Term Limits: The Musical-Chairs Scam

The argument sounds airtight: “Kick the bums out after 8–12 years and the system refreshes itself.”

Reality:

•  California has had strict legislative term limits since 1990. Result? Lobbyists and unelected staff now write 90% of the bills because freshman legislators have no idea what they’re doing.

•  The “termed-out” member doesn’t disappear; they simply run for a different office (state senate → assembly → county supervisor → back again) or, more commonly, hand the seat to their spouse, child, or top staffer. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, same donors, same future lobbying contracts.

•  From 2010–2024, at least 41 termed-out California legislators went straight to lobbying or “consulting” gigs worth millions. Term limits didn’t end the game; they just forced the players to switch jerseys.

Term limits treat symptoms (long tenure) while protecting the disease (cashing in after you leave).

Campaign Finance Reform: Whack-a-Mole on Steroids

Remember McCain-Feingold in 2002? “We’re finally getting big money out!”

Within eight years, the Supreme Court struck down the core parts, Super PACs exploded, and total spending went from $3 billion in 2000 to $16 billion in 2024.

Every single “reform” follows the same cycle:

1.  New law passed with great fanfare

2.  Donors and lawyers find the next loophole (501(c)(4)s → Super PACs → “dark money” → leadership PACs → joint fundraising committees → crypto donations → you get the picture)

3.  Spending actually increases because the new channel is less transparent than the old one

Even the “cleanest” versions (public financing, strict caps) collapse the moment a billionaire decides to run for office and self-funds $200 million (Bloomberg, Steyer, Perot, Trump, etc.). The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly: spending money to influence elections is speech. You can’t cap speech without shredding the First Amendment.

So, campaign finance reform is the ultimate Sisyphean task: you push the boulder up the hill, watch it roll back down in a new form, and repeat forever.

The Fatal Flaw Both “Reforms” Share

They attack the symptoms (long tenure, big donations) but protect the root cause: the legal, expected, and celebrated practice of public officials selling their influence the day they leave office.

As long as a Member of Congress knows they can quadruple their net worth by becoming a lobbyist, strategist, or corporate board member the minute they retire, every vote they cast in office is an investment with a guaranteed return.

That is the only thing that actually matters.

Everything else — term length, donation size, PAC rules — is theater.

The Proof From History

Look at the last time Congress actually feared the public: the 1920s–1930s. Back then, leaving Congress usually meant going home broke. There was no K Street gold rush because lobbying barely existed. Members served a few terms and returned to private life poorer than when they arrived.

Result? Congress passed the most consequential legislation in American history in less than a decade: the Federal Reserve Act, the income tax amendment, the direct election of senators, women’s suffrage, trust-busting, and the Social Security framework.

No revolving door = no permanent ruling class.

Fast-forward to today: the average net worth of a retiring Member is now 6–10× higher than when they entered. We have created the most lucrative career path in America: get elected, vote the right way for twelve years, retire rich.

The Rare Sense Solution: Cut the Profit, Not the Symptoms

There is precisely one reform that cannot be gamed, loophole-proof, and requires only one page:

A lifetime ban on lobbying or paid influence work for anyone who ever served in Congress, worked on congressional staff (GS-12 and above), or held senior executive-branch positions.

No cooling-off period. No “strategic consulting” waivers. No “advisory” roles. You serve the public; you’re done selling influence forever.

Suddenly:

•  The only people willing to run are those who actually want to serve, not cash out.

•  Bills get written by elected officials, not future employers.

•  Staffers stop auditioning for their next six-figure gig and start working for the constituents who pay them today.

Term limits become irrelevant because the bad actors self-select out.

Campaign finance becomes a sideshow because no donor.

It is past time for We the People Campaign finance reform and Term limits.

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