A very good assumption editorialists of moderate stripe have made for years is that term limits are not necessary.
They thought, and wrote, that in Kansas, while its governor and the president had term limits, voters held reins tightly on legislators and congressmen, sending them packing before they became entrenched in office. Statistically, that was true, though less at the federal level than in Topeka.
The Founding Fathers meant for Congress to be a citizen body, not a lifetime profession.
A combination of gerrymandering and an abysmal lack of Democrats of more than local reputation stepping forward has changed the dynamics and left Kansas among the reddest of states.
Conservatism has ingrained itself so much that few other ideas ever surface in Topeka or from the state’s congressional delegation. They march lockstep.
In Washington compassion on the part of Kansas senators and representatives is lacking — their opposition to the Affordable Care Act is a sterling example — and they have become so regimented in their thinking that voting records are as predictable as daybreak.
In Topeka Gov. Sam Brownback’s insistence on cutting income taxes and leaving education, health care (Medicaid) and many other essential state programs at the wayside finds hands flying up among the super majority of GOP legislators anytime a vote occurs.
Conservatism and liberalism are not dirty words, but when elected representatives are so embedded in either philosophy that a movement of even tsunamic proportions can’t change their minds, then it is time for voters to step forward.
— Bob Johnson