Political Reforms for an Aenean Age

Feasible Opportunities for Reforming America's Political System

Today’s essay is a guest post by Thomas Umstattd of AuthorMedia. Thomas has had me as a guest on his podcast twice (How to Write Novels Men Want to Read and How to Write Novels People Will Love by Knowing the Zeitgeist). He also kindly joined me as a guest on my livestream, ACKS To Grind (An Indie Creator's Guide to Marketing Sci-Fi and Fantasy). He also penned the excellent guest post The Sci-Fi Zeitgeist Has Shifted: What Authors Need to Know. Today Thomas writes about political reform for our Aenean Age. Unlike many of my recommendations - which are not just outside the Overton Window, they are not even within the County of Overton at all - Thomas has made suggestions that are well within the range of reform that seems possible. Enjoy!

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As we enter a new era of the cultural zeitgeist, we are also entering a new era of political challenges. History shows us that the solution to one era’s crises often includes the seeds of the next crisis. For example, we needed a large national debt to win WWII, but now the national debt is an existential threat to the nation.

With that in mind, I would like to suggest some structural political reforms to help us navigate this new era. Perhaps we can avoid sowing as many seeds of woe for our descendants to harvest.

Reform #1: Aenean Term Limits

What would have been better for America, Trump serving his second term in 2020, or him serving his second term in 2024? The answer to this question may also be the key to addressing some of the systemic problems in our political system as a whole.

But first, let's talk about the Roman Republic.

Roman Term Limits

The Ancient Romans had term limits. For example, Consuls served for 1 year and then took a 10-year break. During this break they could serve in other roles in the government. This cycled ambitious Romans through various levels of government as they walked the Cursus Honorum.

Cursus Honorum:

• Quaestor (1 year on 1 year off)

• Aedile (1 year on 1 year off)

• Praetor (1 year on 1 year off)

• Consul (1 year on, 9 years off)

• Provincial Governor (1 year on, lifetime off in that province)

The Cursus Honorum gave Rome a deep bench of leaders.

An American analogue would be an ambitious politician serving on the city council, then moving up to the State Legislature, then to Congress, and then to State Governor, then to President. To encourage ambitious Romans to walk the “cursus honorum”, the Romans set graduated age limits on each position. You could run for quaestor as young as 25, but had to wait until age 42 to run for consul.

Cycling someone off and back into private life kept the political class part of the citizenry. The Aedile in charge of aqueduct repair was a regular citizen last year, and might be a regular citizen next year. But he also could be consul in a few years.

This system created an experienced political class where no one could run for anything as an incumbent. You would often see patricians run for a position they had previously served in years before. Do you vote for Gaius who did a decent job as praetor a few years ago or do you vote for Titus who is currently serving as an aedile?

A politician has to do a really good job for voters to remember him fondly years after her served in office.

Americans have only had one chance to vote for two candidates who had both served as president before. And no, it wasn’t in 2024 (Biden got couped don’t forget); it was in 1892.

Typically American voters have to choose between experience and change. Roman voters never had to face that dilemma. They typically had experience on both sides of the ballot.

American Term Limits

The problems with American term limits are twofold.

First, we don’t have enough of them. Congress is where we really need term limits. Most senators lack the physical or mental vigor to run for their seat without incumbency to help them win.

The second problem is the one position that does have term limits has the worst version of term limits. Once someone serves as president and wins two elections, they are out forever. This means the second term is a lame duck term, where the president is no longer motivated by the prospect of winning reelection.

You would think a lack of electoral accountability would turn presidents into tyrants, but more often it just makes them lazy. For example, Obama played twice as much golf in his second term as he played in his first.

No one was ever a lame duck in Rome. Patricians could always run for another office or re-run for the same position after a break.

Proposed American Term Limits for the Aenean Age

Instead of permanent term limits for the president, I think we should adopt a Roman approach of temporary term limits for everyone. No more lame ducks. No more eternal incumbents.

My proposal: 2 Cycles on, 1 Cycle Off

During the off-cycle, politicians can run for a different position in a different part of the government. So, your options as a term-limited politician are to move up, move down, or move out.

With this approach, newly elected officials may have to face the former incumbent after one term. Every election is a tough one, where you are either running for an open seat or potentially running for reelection against the former incumbent.

But what about Washington?

George Washington set the custom for a two-term presidency with his example. He declined to run for a third term, inspired by Cincinnatus the Roman Dictator. During the Republican era, dictator was an emergency role that stood above the Consul. The Senate appointed Cincinnatus dictator to fight an invasion by the Aequi. After winning a decisive battle, he resigned as dictator immediately rather than enriching himself by serving out his full six-month term.

Our founders had a very high view of Cincinnatus and even named Fort Washington to Cincinnati to honor him. Washington was widely seen as a second Cincinnatus.

But here's the thing people forget about Cincinnatus. He served as dictator twice. Nineteen years after repelling the Aequi, the Roman Senate appointed Cincinnatus dictator to prevent a coup attempt by Spurius Maelius.

So, two terms on, one term off, could still honor the spirit of Washington and Cincinnatus.

With this model:

• Clinton could have run against W. Bush in 2004

• W. Bush could have run against Obama in 2012

• Obama could have run against Trump in 2020.

Currently, most politicians transition from citizen straight to Congressman and then remain there till death do them part. Very few congressmen start in city government, move to state government, and then to congress. Two terms on and one term off would bring more varied experience to Congress while reducing the fungal rot that seems to infect incumbents.

Reform #2: Filibuster Reform

It is good that Trump is reforming the government and clearing out corruption. However, it is unfortunate that these reforms are being implemented through executive fiat. From Caesar to Cromwell to Napoleon, republics die when the executive becomes too powerful.

These are the seeds of the next crisis.

Our founders knew this, and they established the three branches of government to hold each other accountable. Each branch was supposed to purge the other branches of corruption. This system is broken and the filibuster killed it.

In 2024 the legislative branch passed only 274 bills. I used to think fewer bills getting passed was a good thing. But if Congress doesn’t make needed changes someone else will step in to do the job. So unelected bureaucrats pass regulations and unelected judges pass rulings to fill in the gap. The voice of the voters is muted when their representatives can’t pass legislation with a majority vote.

The judicial branch still operates on a majority vote. The Supreme Court only needs five judges to agree. And the executive branch operates through the hierarchical will of the executive. But the legislative branch? It can’t do anything but pass a budget without a 60% vote in the Senate.

With most votes following party lines, this means nothing gets passed.

The fix is simple, restore the original filibuster.

• Senators can talk as long as they want, but they have actually to be talking from the well. No more phoning it in to block progress.

• If no one is in the well, it would only take 51 votes to bring cloture.

And just like that the legislative branch becomes a co equal branch of government again.

Reform #3: Gerrymandering Reform

I interned in the 2001 Texas Legislature. This was the first time the Republicans had been in charge of redistricting in Texas in over a hundred years. The saying among the staffers was “We will be just as fair to the Democrats as they were fair to us.”

The Texas legislature has been Republican ever since.

The problem: There is no such thing as a nonpartisan person. So, redistricting will always be a partisan process. Those with the power to draw the lines, draw them in a way to favor themselves. With house-level voting data and computer modeling, the members of redistricting committees rarely lose elections.

This is a big reason why politicians have historically low favorability ratings and higher than ever re-election rates.

Instead of voters picking their representatives, representatives pick their voters.

The solution: Simple Constitutional Geometry.

Set latitudinal district lines in the state constitutions. In most regions of the United States, the North-South divide is culturally more significant than the East-West divide. North Floridians are more different from Southern Floridians than east is from west. The latitudinal lines should follow county borders as much as possible. The county is a real political jurisdiction with real cultural differences that should be represented as much as possible. But counties vary wildly in population, so what do you do?

After each census, the legislature sets the straight longitudinal lines to proportion the districts. This way you have rectangular districts, dramatically limiting the ability for incumbents to create their own custom districts. They can still influence the districts but to a much lesser extent.

But what about cities? How can they have representation? Designate a constitutionally defined urban center for each major city. This center is the center point of a circle that is carved out of the rectangle. Larger cities could get multiple pie wedges.

If a toddler can draw the district map, the politician’s ability for shenanigans is limited.

Reform #4: State Embassies in DC

One of the problems with the current political order is that elected representatives often identify more with their political party than with the state that elected them. Part of the reason for this is that the elected officials and their staffers blend into the DC community and lose their sense of Texanness or Floridianness.

Idahoans spend more time with fellow party members than they do with fellow Idahoans.

So here is my proposed solution. State “embassies.” These would be neighborhoods purchased by states to house their delegations in DC. There would be houses that the senators and representatives are required to live in by state law. These houses could be even attached to offices in the same way the White House is attached to an office.

Surrounding the houses for senators and congressmen would be houses for their staffers.

Having the Oregonian delegation live together would help preserve their Oregonian identity and help smooth out the harsh edges of party affiliation.

Having the office space in the Texas district would also be a physical reminder that you work for Texas, not for America.

The schools in the neighborhood would be run by the state of origin rather than by DC Public Schools. So, the Texas Education Agency would run the schools in the Texas neighborhood, and the California Department of Education would run the schools in the California neighborhood.

We would go farther and add Texan restaurants and a Texas visitors center. So tourists visiting DC could also “visit” the various state districts to get a feel for that state.

These ideas are not new, but in this new age this kind of structural change is needed.