Hello, fellow Americans, and thank you for visiting our site,
If you're like most of us, you've known for some time now that something is definitely wrong with our government in Washington, but perhaps you haven't quite been able to put your finger on the problem.
Well, it's no small wonder; government today has grown to be a extremely complex issue, and identifying the real source of our problems has eluded even the most astute and observant Washington insiders.
After months of researching the workings of our federal government over the past century or so, we are certain that we have identified the root cause of our malaise and we are determined to set things right!
We are convinced that the real source of our problem lies within the United States Congress. Specifically, it concerns career politicians with "unlimited congressional tenure". In other words, there are no limits whatsoever on the number of times that anyone may be elected -- or to be more precise -- reelected to Congress.
Most of us tend to blame our Presidents when our country is suffering. After all, they are our supreme leaders and are the most highly visible targets for scorn. However, Presidents come and go every four to eight years. They are either beaten in elections or forced to retire by the two-term limit Congress passed in 1951.
On the other hand, members of Congress face no such limits on tenure and there are many very powerful people in Congress who have influenced and directed the course of our nation for longer than most Americans have lived.
These are the career politicians we are concerned about; the ones who are actually responsible, and should rightly bare the blame, for the condition of our country and state of our economy.
Congress today is dominated by lifelong career politicians who have made a very good living at the expense of the American taxpayers and the generosity of wealthy special interest groups for way too long.
Too many of our elected leaders have held office for decades and as a result, a long-standing "culture of corruption" has evolved within our Congress that should shame and alarm all law-abiding Americans.
Too many in Congress have held office for so long that they haven't lived a day in the real world for most of their adult lives. These "leaders" have no idea about what life in our world is like and have completely forgotten -- if they ever knew -- how to earn an honest living in the private sector.
We ask you, how can people who don't know a thing about the real world and the real world issues that most of us deal with every day of our lives honestly represent the interests of ordinary Americans in Congress?
If you don't believe they can either, then you are definitely one of us and should do everything in your power to aid us in our cause!
To give you some idea of the length of tenures we're talking about, the five longest-serving members in the House of Representatives have held office for a combined total of one hundred and seven terms, or two hundred and fourteen years. That's an average of twenty-two two-year terms, or forty-three years each!
The five longest-serving Senators have held Senate office for a combined total of one hundred and ninety-nine years, or almost forty years each, and doesn't count time they held prior elective office in the House or elsewhere in government.
Our longest serving Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia -- often referred to as the "Prince of Pork" because of his propensity to kick back billions of tax payer dollars to his special interest supporters and buy the votes of his constituents -- just celebrated his ninety-second birthday and has held his Senate office for nine consecutive six-year terms, or almost fifty-five years!
Each of these senior members is the chairman of a powerful congressional committee or subcommittee; positions they were awarded not because of some special skill, talent or other bona fide qualification, but simply because they've held onto office longer than anyone else and belong to the right political party. In Congress, this is worshipped as "seniority" and everybody wants more.
These are the most powerful men in Congress; perhaps even in our entire federal government, and they exert dictatorial authority over their more junior colleagues, the entire political process, the fate of all legislation, and they wield tremendous influence over every other facet of our government and our own daily lives.
And these are just the ten most senior members. Congress today is loaded with career politicians, most of them lawyers, who have been continuously reelected ten, fifteen and even twenty times or more!
We ask, how can anyone be elected that often in truly free and open elections? These guys must be the smartest, wisest, most noble, likable, honest, caring, and responsible people on the planet to keep getting reelected so often!
Quite the contrary; there is very real evidence that over the past century or so career politicians in Congress have rigged the election process so that few (less than 5%) political outsiders ever stand a real chance of challenging them and winning!
Congress has engineered so many advantages into the election process for themselves they are virtually guaranteed reelection every time they run for office, continuously perpetuating their political careers.
Amazingly, some of these careerists have been reelected over twenty times, and that simply isn't likely to happen on a level playing field. Congressional elections just aren't fair, and we American citizens -- the real power in this country -- must change that so others who may actually care about our interests can have a chance to serve.
According to recent national voter polls, somewhere between seventy and eighty-five percent of all Americans favor term limits for Congress. The only real opposition to them come from Congress itself, and the lobbyists and wealthy special interests that rely on Congress to support their self-serving agendas.
Special interests raised $3.3 million to block term limits in California in 1990, but lost anyway. Special interests are literally the only parties that donate hugely to "vote no" campaigns for term limits. Lobbyists in Florida filed suit against that state's initiative to impose term limits on their legislature, and they lost too.
The National Education Association, labor unions, the National Rifle Association, public employees unions, professional groups, trial lawyers, medical associations, law firms, lobbyists, public relations companies, and many major corporations all oppose term limits precisely because they know they would be the major losers when term limit expirations retire their bought and paid for career politicians from Congress.
Our grass roots movement, ACT NOW!, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of concerned citizens who are dedicated to restoring better government in Washington by reforming the United States Congress and establishing reasonable term limits for our elected congressional representatives.
Defining and enforcing these term limits for Congress requires the passage of a new constitutional amendment (as explained elsewhere on the site) similar to the Twenty-second Amendment that Congress passed to limit Presidents to two four-year terms.
We believe it is our duty as American citizens to see that an amendment is passed to end the dominance of corrupt career politicians who discovered long ago that a position in Congress is an extremely lucrative and comfortable lifelong job!
We want to see our Congress restored as a citizen legislature -- as was intended by our nation's founders -- composed of people that we elect to serve our interests, who get the job done and then go home to resume their lives and careers. Or if they so choose, to aspire to other elected office elsewhere in government.
Our intention is to restore real representative government to the American People by forcing the lifelong political careerists in Congress to vacate their seats so that other qualified candidates, who may actually serve the interests of their constituents, can be elected to replace them. And we need your help!
YOUR INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE
"It is difficult to overstate the extent to which term limits would reform Congress. Term limits are supported by large majorities of most American demographic groups; and are opposed primarily by incumbent politicians and wealthy special interest groups which depend on them to accomplish their own goals.
Term limits would ameliorate many of America's most serious political problems by counter-balancing incumbent election advantages, ensuring congressional turnover, securing independent congressional judgment, and reducing re-election related incentives for wasteful government spending.
The current term limits initiative, led by ACT NOW!, is a tribute to public involvement in politics and is one of the few significant reforms devised and implemented by people who live beyond the Beltway. It is substantive, not cosmetic; both allies and enemies concede that congressional service terms would create favorable and fundamental change in American politics."
-- Representative Dan Greenberg
Please make it your business to explore our site and discover for yourself why we are so concerned about the future of our democracy and the direction in which our country is heading.
Here you will discover why we believe that reforming Congress now is absolutely necessary for the health and future vitality of our democracy and, if you agree, how you can help reduce the corruption, limit the influence of special interests, minimize partisan hostilities, and eliminate the self-serving political practices that have reduced our once democratic government to a tragic parody of itself.
We appreciate your interest in our mission, and welcome you to join us. We urge you to add your voice to ours, to volunteer your time and talents, and to support our efforts through your generous donations.
You can play a huge role just by sending the link to this website to everyone on your mailing list and spreading the word about our movement to reform Congress and restore better government to the American People.
As the famous American author and humorist, Mark Twain, once observed, "Everyone complains about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it."
Well, reforming Congress may not be quite as difficult as taming the weather, but it won't be easy! However, if we don't do something about it now, it will be "business as usual" in Washington for the rest of our lives and for our children's lives as well. We owe it to ourselves and all future generations of Americans to get this job done!
Amending the Constitution to limit congressional terms is a monumental endeavor that will require keen focus, fierce commitment, substantial financial resources, and the voluntary support of many everyday Americans like you and me to be successful.
We expect the careerists in Congress to fight us every step of the way, and they won't give up until overwhelming public opinion and fear for their positions forces them to do something about our demand for a term limit amendment.
If you are as appalled and disgusted with the current condition of our country and the outrageous behavior of our government as we are, then climb aboard and join us!
It's guaranteed to be an extremely wild ride, but reforming Congress and restoring better government for all Americans is a goal worthy of real patriots like us and, for the sake of everything we hold dear, one we absolutely must achieve!
This is a big job, so we often remind ourselves of the defiant words of our nation's first President as he contemplated the mind-boggling task of overthrowing the world's most powerful empire and securing our nation's independence from the British:
"We have therefore resolved to conquer or die: Our won Country's Honor, all call upon us for vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of our Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being in whose hands Victory is, to animate us and encourage us to great and noble Actions." -- George Washington
Join us, pray for us and encourage us to great and noble actions!
Best regards,
Joe Londot
Joe Londot
Chairman
ACT NOW!
