Push the Limits

LAST year, in a heated debate on congressional term limits, a veteran congressional Democrat pounded his fist on the lectern and complained that limiting terms would ultimately leave America with “a Congress of mediocrity.” To his astonishment, the audience cheered. Most Americans support term limits precisely because they think mediocrity would be a vast improvement.

But now come Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate for the first time since Strom Thurmond was in his fifties. We may have finally arrived at a Congress of mediocrity even without term limits.