Earnest reformers in Illinois contend that term limits constitute a serious response to our current plight, and that they will produce both better lawmakers and better laws. They are wrong on all counts. Term limits in states that have them have generated questionable results. Legislators who come and go lose power to unelected bureaucrats who refer to them as "tourists".
Want more power wielded by unelected bureaucrats? Vote for term limits.
Term-limited legislators focus on the short run, on quick fixes, because they won't be around long enough to shepherd solutions that take time to come to fruition.
Want unstable, mutable policies? Vote for term limits.
Political scientists teach that we can't change personnel without changing policy. As an aside, The Federalist papers taught us this lesson 227 years ago. Elections are still the best term limits. If we are to be trusted to elect lawmakers in the first place, then why can't we retain them or remove them as we see fit?
The argument for term limits is actually an argument against democracy. As we would reject the latter argument, so should we reject the former.
The deranged killer scrawls the message on the mirror, "Stop me before I kill again." The advocate of term limits scrawls, "Stop me before I re-elect.”
I'm Bob Evans, and that's my perspective.
