Term Limits. Why Both Parties Kill It Every Time It Comes Up

Every few years, the term limits conversation resurfaces. A poll comes out showing 75% support. Some first-term congressman introduces a bill. It gets a press release, maybe a hearing, and then quietly disappears. This has been happening since at least the 1990s.

The reason it never passes is simple: the people who would have to vote for term limits are the people term limits would remove from office...lol

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic" - Benjamin Franklin (maybe)

The Numbers Are Wild

The average age of a US Senator is currently in the mid-60s. The average tenure of a member of Congress who stays past their first term is over a decade. Several sitting members have been in office for 30, 40, even 50 years.

The generation currently governing the country came of age politically before the internet existed. They are making decisions about AI, social media regulation, cryptocurrency, and climate policy while being, in many cases, genuinely unfamiliar with the technologies involved. This is not a partisan observation. It applies equally to both caucuses.

The Argument Against Term Limits

The strongest argument against term limits is institutional knowledge. Congress is genuinely complex. Legislation takes years to develop. Relationships with agencies, with the other chamber, with foreign governments matter. A mandatory churn of inexperienced legislators could actually shift power toward unelected staffers and lobbyists who have the expertise that term-limited members lack.

This is a real concern. It’s also been used as an excuse to avoid the conversation for 30 years.

We all watched AOC get up to speed. Once she got there, her bank account had followed.

Why It’s an Issue

Millennials are the largest living adult generation. We are also catastrophically underrepresented in Congress. The median millennial is in their mid-30s. The median congressperson is in their late 50s. The policies being made reflect the priorities and frameworks of people two generations removed from the ones living with their consequences.

Term limits alone won’t fix this. But the broader question, how do you rotate power in a system that has structurally rewarded incumbency and frozen out younger candidates, is one that our generation has an enormous stake in.

The 2026 midterms are happening. A significant number of incumbents are going to be primaried, some from the right, as Dan Crenshaw just discovered, some from the left. The question of whether that churn produces better representation or just different incumbents is an open one.

But one thing is clear: a Congress with an average age in the mid-60s, making decisions that will shape the lives of people in their 30s and 40s, with no mandatory mechanism for turnover, is not working as designed. A

nd the people in charge of fixing it are the same people benefiting from the current arrangement.

Stay Frustrated