There should be term limits for U.S. Congress members.

Thanks Larz for this debate.After listening to your interview with TOPHATDOC, I realized that there is a considerable difference in the way political parties are ran in New Zealand than they are in America. One of the biggest issues that leads me to support Congressional term limits is the way our congress members are elected.There is a large gap between the ruling class and the electing members. Despite the people claiming to be republican or democratic, green party, or whatever else. The people of America are largely independent and may vote for any party at their whim according to the campaign that they like the best. Also unlike New Zealand, there is no graduated election system. The American officials are elected by a majority. Sometimes that Majority is less than 50%, but being as no other person running received a higher percentage, they are elected to office. The election process and rules vary state to state. But one thing that doesn't vary is the problem that no matter what state the congress member are elected from, they are beholden to ruling class, not to the people. Officials of the Ruling ClassThe officals of the state rely on the people of the state to vote on them based on thier ability to carry out thier own interests. The officials carry out self interest not the intrest of the people who have elected them. Occasionally, a congressmen's self interest will coincide with the interests of the people but it is not necessarily the case, and not often the norm. The people are not commited to a political party and the parties they elect are not commited to them. I find that rooting for a political party is often like rootng for a sports team. It is often in my interest that my teams win, but the players are responsible to thier fans for winning and not winning, they are responsible to thier owners. I can complain or cheer till I die, but changes and desires imposed on the team come from the owners, and I, as a fan, am just along for the ride.The rule of Law The only thing that the lawmakers must abid by is the law itself. Once elected they are free to act on thier own will. However, as they are futher removed from thier constituants by they time they are away from thier home of record, i.e. the place they are elected from. The become more associated with the ruling class. The change occurs quickly. Congressmen no longer represent the will of the people, they become the agents of the ruling class that impose its will on the people. The only thing that can stop elected officials from absolute depotism is the law of America. The people have no power in comparison to the law. It is always the Law of America that must supported or changed in America because the will of the people is a powerless in comparison. Power to the.. Rich It takes a lot of money to run an election campeign. Only the rich can afford it, only the rich are electable. But, why not elect the rich? They are obviously people whe are strong leaders and have some financial prowess. The reason for not electing them is that their intrests do represent the intests of the majority of the people in thier districts. The need to limit AuthorityWhenever there is a disjunct between the will of the people and will of the ruling class, a distinct measure must inacted to restrict the will of the ruling class. One of the ways to do this is to break up the continuity of the lawmakers. The longstanding law makers in Washington my have clout among the peopel of Washington, but they no longer act on the interests of the people that elected them. It is improbable that they ever acted in the interest of the people that elected them. It is just such that thier intrests came form thier experiences, and they had similar interests because they has similar experiences. As an elected official begins to have government experiencs, the electing people continue to have thier own seperate experiences and the culture of the officials begins to change. It is impossible for the culture of the legislatures in America to match the will of the people after they have been removed from the people after a certain period of time and there should be term limits that will allow new people to be elected to congess that are more loyal to the people.