...if there really is a case to be made that extending term limits would improve city government and that having the current Council members and citywide officials continue in office past next year, they should make it on specific grounds. What precisely would the Council and the citywide officials be able to accomplish if granted the ability to run for an additional term or two? And which laws or actions that they have taken over the last seven years will they admit were not up to par because they lacked the expertise to handle them properly?Editorial: Term Limits Must Stay, Self-Serving Politicians Must Go
Instead, there should be a movement within the Council to finalize the debate on term limits once and for all. And while they are doing so, Council members and Mayor Michael Bloomberg should consider adding in some additional provisions to make city elections more competitive, like reducing the length of Council terms to two years while keeping the limit at eight years in office, and eliminating matching funds for incumbents seeking re-election. That is the kind of re-examination of the system that the city actually needs—not the current kind of monkey business.
Next year, term limits will boot out some elected officials who are mediocre at best, but will also remove some very talented and excellent people from office. That is the price we pay for having term limits. But the benefit is a better democracy—the worst form of government, as Winston Churchill said, except for all the others.
The question city officials now have to answer is whether they believe in democracy, or whether they are just politicians thirsty for another drink.
3 comments:
These "oinkers" have had their snouts in the trough at city hall long enough, slurping up our tax dollars for their pork projects,
while leaving us to clean up
their abundant output of shit.
Well, now that these prize pigs have been properly fattened
(on real estate money)
it's high time to send them off to the butcher.
It's we New Yorkers who bust our asses working hard each day to bring home the bacon to our hungry families.
Maybe now these C.M.s
can really serve our needs
(heh, heh, heh)
at the breakfast table!
Never mind !
Who'd want to
start a career in cannibalism
by consuming an exiting
city council member
(even if well prepared
by a Cordon Bleu chef)?
I'll be honest. Democracy is a noble concept but it presumes a relatively intelligent populus. NYC is a world away from that. Term limits are anti-democratic which is why they are necessary.
True dat last poster!
The purpose of providing
a free public education system
in America was to ensure an "enlightened citizenry"
if I remember correctly
from my early civic lessons.
Look at the crappy bored of education system that we wound up with today!
It's a no-brainer!
H-m-m-m,
and then there's the Queens KKK (Krowley's Klubhouse Krooks)
handing out token favors to keep the electorate beholding to these
political mob bosses who in turn elect and re-elect them
out of fear or stupidity!
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