The move would extend her 36-year House career and continue to freeze her would-be California successors in a long-standing holding pattern.
This is an entirely different concept. Comparing politics to medicine is beyond nonsensical. People go into politics idealistic. The longer they spend in there, the more entrenched in the insider games they become. How many of our problems are borne from politicians protecting their own jobs over doing what’s right? How many of our problems are thanks to entrenched politicos who’ve lost touch with real life?
It’s almost like the opposite is true of politics than any actual job: experience is almost a detriment. Because the “experience” you gain in that world is not how to more efficiently and justly serve your constituents. It’s to more expertly hobknob and fundraise and keep your job.
The analogy has some merit in that politics is a job that takes experience and skill. Look at Biden - he’s working with a divided government but he’s still accomplished more than most presidents - more than Obama, our last Democratic president, by some margin - and much of it has been bipartisan. Whatever your feelings on him, he’s an experienced politician who knows how to work things through the houses.
Okay…but look at biden’s long and pretty problematic history. In his long tenure, he’s racked up quite the laundry list of entirely wrong-side-of-history moments. It’s incredibly rare to get an ideologue who stays idealistic and continues to fight for the people. Bernie sanders is literally the only example in our…entire history as a country? Unless someone can prove otherwise.
Not to mention, the president doesn’t really work bills through congress. Yes, of course there is influence, but the whips and lobbyists are the ones peddling the influence—which goes to exactly what we’re saying. There is a long-standing and deeply flawed “established order” to American politics. How do people stay in office? They make the right friends in donors, they get some empty applause-line accomplishments, or they pander like hell. Usually all three. But most important among them is protecting their asses from the party, and staying on their good side. Look at how much time is spent fundraising. There is no way that doesn’t entirely warp your perception on what is important over time. When these congresspeople have 95% of their direct interaction with constituents coming from high level donor phonecalls…that definitely has an effect.
Biden’s long history is only a selling point for the people he’s friends with, and vice versa. Because all his sway comes from the long held relationships with OTHER people who shouldn’t be in politics anymore. Trading favors as old friends isn’t a selling point to no term limits.
Biden has a long history, and I agree he hasn’t always made the right call, but he took to the Senate in 73, and he’s voted on and sponsored an awful lot of legislation. Find me someone who can do a job like that for 50 years without making an error in judgement and we should canonize them. He’s also become more enlightened on a number of issues, articulate why, and changed his opinion (and how he votes) on them.
But I wasn’t meaning to hold Biden up as the guy to emulate, I’m just saying that his long experience is much of what makes him effective - he knows how to work the system. We should get rid of people who aren’t effective or are effective at doing the wrong thing, but I don’t think we should get rid of an effective person who does the right thing just because of the number of birthdays they’ve had.
