Losin' Touch Daily News Misreads Tea Leaves Again

[XLFD]

 "Now is the time when men work quietly in the fields and women weep softly in the kitchen; the legislature is in session and no man’s property is safe."  - Daniel Webster

It is always so easy to determine the difference between a City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) opinion and a letter to the editor (unless the letter is from a former city councilor, a former news editor, or both).  The editorial will always sound as if three elitists penned it, whereas the letters will have the common sense and viewpoint of the common Ludington citizen, even if I don't agree with them.  This last Tuesday's opinion is a good case in point, where the COLDNews addresses the pressing local issue of a part-time State legislature.  Read the combined viewpoint of Klevorn, Walker and Begnoche.

A good start is that they did spell everything in the title correctly, but then it gets worse.  One could look at approval ratings and make the case that people are frustrated with government at all state and federal levels, though I would not say our legislature spends any time running for election; maybe re-election, but few actually would spend any more than 20% of the time in such endeavors.  Their taxpayer-paid staff and base-expanding policies usually help secure another term without much effort on their part.  The rest of their full-time work they use their creativity in making more and more laws we don't generally need.

The editors then say a part-time legislature seems a quick and easy fix, then segue into a discussion of how term limits were muddled recently, before coming back to part-time legislators four good-sized paragraphs later.  At that point, they then make one point for part-timers (some people just don't like government, which fails to take into account the increase of efficiency, transparency, accountability, and the time a legislator spends back in his district.  Not including the decrease in costs, nuisance laws, and the influence of entrenched Lansing lobbyists).  The best argument they have for keeping them full-time is that the other branches would gain power if they weren't, without mentioning that 41 of our nation's state legislatures are part-time and many of those are doing a lot better than us.

But their out-of-touchness is with the term-limit issue.  The editorial trio listen only to those poor term-limited legislators who say that it is not working out so good, yet seem to give no ear time to the population of Michigan that support term limits by a large margin, and would vote to re-enact them in a heartbeat.  Remember, we just had a term-limit issue on the ballot here in Ludington back in 2012, where supporters of a supposedly-popular Mayor hoped to extend term limits for him were killed at the polls by a two-to-one margin, despite having spent a lot of money campaigning for it. 

"Professional politicians like to talk about the value of experience in government. Nuts! The only experience you gain in politics is how to be political." - Ronald Reagan

Term limits are fantastic, and the vast majority of people love them, because it's hard to get rid of a well-connected politician after he's lost his connection to his constituents.  Politicians aren't supposed to stay in the same job for 12 years or more, they get as out-of-touch with the real people as the COLDNews editors. 

[Willy]

LDN states that Michigan's term limit laws are flawed and have harmed the State. Funny they didn't describe what flaws there are and how the State has been harmed, if in fact it has.  LDN also fails to tell it's readers that once a State Senator or Representative has completed term limits they are allowed to run for office in the opposite chamber. Serving in both houses should give a budding politician enough time to damage our Government. The LDN is way out of touch with the public and it shows in their reporting of local Government fiasco's.

[XLFD]

That's how the editors typically present their case, with an unproven generality or two that we are supposed to take for granted because these three progressive elitists say that is the case.  The only indication that they give that term limits are flawed is that they are butt-hurt that the two Michigan house do not have 12 year term limits (they are 6 and 8 years respectively for the house and senate respectively), but again:  why is this flawed?  How does it hurt the state?  Why do we want more entrenched politicians in one or the other chamber?  Apparently that is self-evident to them, just like their view that there is no corruption in our local government because they get granted access, news releases, and favors from them.