“Our politicians are the problem.”

Our Proposal:

• One-term limit for any office federal, state, and local
  • Can never run for the same office again
  • “One chance to make a difference”
• 2-year waiting period to run for another office
  • 2 years after the end of the last office held
  • “No more using political office as a reelection springboard”

The Goal:

• Making elected officials concentrate on doing their jobs, not on reelection
• Making it harder for special interests to exert control
  • Threatening to sabotage reelection is no longer an option
• Making bipartisanship easier
  • Less pressure to toe the party line

Explanation:

Our political system is broken, and our democracy is in danger, because of one simple reason: our politicians. Every election cycle we hear the same flowery speeches and tired ideas, and nothing changes. Their priorities (obsessions) are getting reelected, serving the special interests that help them achieve that, and engaging in ruthless self-serving partisan politics, regardless of the damage it does to our country. As Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator George Will stated in a recent NPR interview, "[there's not] a dime's worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans in terms of their first priority being continuation in office, it’s an attribute of a career political class." (Emphasis added).

Repeat three times: Our reelection-obsessed politicians are the problem.  

So… let’s do something about it. Let’s give the power back to the people, and have our elected officials work for us, instead of themselves, their political parties, and special interests.

Political power needs to be recognized for what it is: addictive and corrupting. History has shown this. The current state of affairs in our country has shown this. The recent rise of authoritarianism worldwide has shown this. We hold this to be a self-evident truth. The only cure is to eliminate the possibility of reelection. One term in office. One chance to make a difference. One chance to help change history. No chance to drink the addictive Kool-aid of political power. No more "first priority staying in office."

Presently, an incumbent politician has an overwhelming 90% or greater probability of being reelected. The questions are simple: do you believe that that the current system based on virtually automatic reelection is the best we can do? Do you think it’s okay for elected officials to spend more than half of their time (on your dime) raising money for their own reelection and political party? Would you accept such behavior from your own employees? (Image if they spent half of each day at the office lobbying for a contract extension). Do you really think things will change by reelecting an incumbent, or by electing a new multi-term-politician-wannabe?

The Solutions Party stands for a new way of doing things, based on the belief that would we be better served by having new people and new ideas introduced in every election cycle. People elected to work their entire term in office with no regard to reelection. People who have no reason to constantly be in “campaign mode” dialing for dollars, and traveling to political rallies on taxpayers' money. People who make decisions based on what they think is best, not on how it will affect their reelection prospects, partisan interests, or special interest support.

The Solutions Party also believes that doing away with reelection will make it much more difficult for special interests to exert influence and control, since their leverage over our elected officials will be greatly reduced. It will be far harder to secure a long-term “politician in the pocket” with new people elected every election cycle.

Finally, with reelection off the table, and along with it the dreaded, weak-knee-inducing “political risk,” working with across the aisle will be easier, since there will be no reelection benefit to just obediently towing the party line and engaging in the mindless, "say-anything" partisanship that we see now. This will enable an environment in which elected officials can work with others regardless of party to achieve common goals that move our cities, states, and country forward.

Progress toward a better future—isn’t that what we want for a change?

Let’s do this!