Californians are agog with discussion about term limits. Namely, Californians who have been elected to state office. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is leading the charge to revise the term limit system. Mr. Nunez certainly doesn't have the same appreciation for term limits that I do.
Clearly, term limits have some drawbacks. The current California legislature is nearly the youngest and least experienced ever. And sure, limits lead to some unlikely transitions.
But I recently came to a stark realization: any such complaints are merely myopic. People who criticize term limits because of the obvious and bizarre detrimental impact they have on our government are just thinking small. Where term limits really shine -- in every other occupation. Term limits at coffee houses. Term limits for bus drivers. Term limits at PriceWaterhouse.
Let's take, for example, surgeons. Would you want some career doctor, who has been sitting in the same office for over twenty years, someone who is a product of stale, predictable thinking, to be the person to remove your brain tumor? No! You'd want someone who could bring fresh thinking! A new voice! Someone who would normally be shut out of advanced surgery, who could prove their worth on you!
And, kids, look at the job market. All those sweet positions, the ones with the offices that have windows and where someone answers your phone and can tell people you're in a meeting? Available in just a few short months. Yes, you're up against thousands of people recently termed-out of similar jobs, but it's that sort of increased competition we're aiming for!
For God's sake -- consider the unelected political world. The benefits are immeasurable. Pat Robertson would have been off the air in the 1970s, leaving someone younger and handsomer (CBN, call me!) to make racially insensitive gestures. Karl Rove would be a Boy Scout Master in Carson City (tomato-picking merit badge, anyone?). Of course, Michael Moore would only have a few years left at his job, once he found one.
I've made my point. We all agree how much better the world would be if, instead of rolling back term limits, we were to apply them more broadly, in perpetuity, throughout the universe. Once that happens, I'm going into neurosurgery. How hard can it be?