When Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin sat in a heated committee hearing with Sen. Bernie Sanders several months ago, he didn’t hold back.
In classic Oklahoma fashion, Mullin looked at the self-described democratic socialist and said, “You’re a part of the problem. You’ve been sitting here longer than I’ve even been alive.”
Mullin’s math wasn’t far off. Sanders entered Congress in 1991, years before Mullin even graduated from high school. For decades, the only “job” Sanders has really had is walking the halls of the Capitol.
While Oklahoma conservatives cheered Mullin for saying what many were thinking, we have to be honest with ourselves. If the “forever politician” is a problem when it’s a independent from Vermont or a Democrat from New York or California, it’s just as much of a problem when it’s a Republican from Kentucky.
For years, Republicans rightly criticized the obvious cognitive decline of Joe Biden. We mocked the defensive press members who insisted he was “sharp as a tack” behind closed doors. Then, the House Oversight Committee’s bombshell report on the “Autopen Presidency” dropped, revealing that staff were literally using a robotic signature machine to sign off on executive actions while the commander-in-chief was shielded from the public.
We shook our heads at Nancy Pelosi, who clung to power in her 80s, seemingly convinced the House of Representatives would dissolve into dust without her holding the gavel.
However, we also have to look at our own side of the aisle.
For years, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell was a master strategist, but in his final years in leadership, the freezing spells on camera and visible frailty has become impossible to ignore. We can’t cry foul when Democrats hide their leaders’ decline in a back room and then look the other way when our own leaders do the exact same thing.
The truth is, Congress has become the world’s most exclusive, taxpayer-funded assisted living facility.
Our Founding Fathers never intended for public service to be a lifelong career. They envisioned citizens leaving their farms and businesses, serving a few terms, and then returning home to live under the laws they helped create. They did not envision a permanent political class where the average age of leadership rivals the temperature of an Oklahoma summer day.
When politicians have been in Washington for 30 or 40 years, they lose touch with reality. They don’t know what a gallon of milk costs at the Homeland in Norman. They don’t know what it’s like to sweat over a small business payroll in Enid. They only know the echo chamber of K Street lobbyists and Beltway cocktail parties.
It is time for term limits, and that’s hard for me to admit. I never liked them because I always thought if politicians were doing a good job, they should be able to stay if the people like them. However, that seems to be an outdated thought, because many have turned elected office into a lifetime career.
Limiting senators to two terms and representatives to six terms — a total of 12 years each — isn’t just about keeping the wheels turning but also letting the next generation of conservative leaders step up. We have brilliant, energetic, hard-working young minds in this country who are ready to fight for our fiscal sanity and constitutional rights, but they can’t get on the ballot because 80-year-old incumbents are hoarding the campaign donor lists.
If we want to save this country, we have to stop treating Congress like a tenure track profession. Let’s take Sen. Mullin’s advice to Bernie Sanders and turn it into policy.
It’s time to implement term limits, send the career politicians home, and let a new generation take the wheel before the autopen runs out of ink.
Randy D. Gibson is CEO of RDG Communications LLC.