What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? Instituting term limits is probably the worst change you could make to Congress. It’s by far the worst idea that folks actually talk about.

That the residents of the District of Columbia have no representation in the Senate and only a non-voting member of the House. This despite the Constitutional guarantee of representation in Congress through a state.

I'm convinced wrt congress, and know it wouldn't fix the Supreme Court, but I dunno about the judges all going full cryptkeeper before dying or retiring and the constant constitutional crises that presents.

We have term limits. They are called “elections”. Get the big money out of these races to level the playing field and you will see turnover.

The person who brought me around to your idea basically just told me to think about it as turnover. Do you want someone there who knows the ropes of how to run your state or do you want a trainee every couple of years.

I have mixed feelings about term limits. There are downsides but without them, representation would lag behind for new immigrant groups. For example many AAPI districts in California didn't get AAPI representation until previous state legislator termed out, due to incumbency advantage.

Most criticism of California does not hold water -- but that is one specific way in which Sacramento is broken: term limits on legislators