6 years per term, here, but no term limits. Combine that with name recognition, low-information voters, and "the devil you know", and they're basically / de-facto appointed for life, as you say. They can and have been voted out before, but it seems to be rare these days. Usually they retire (Manchin, supposedly), resign (Franken), or die of old age in office (Feinstein, Byrd).
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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Showerthoughts
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Being ruled by gereatrics is grand. We got things like maternity leave and good health care!
In the UK the house of Lords is like that but in Australia the upper house has 6 year terms and have to go for reelection. Seats change all the time. Very few are safe seats.
Man the more I hear about how Australia's government the more I wanna risk the increased chance of skin cancer
don't forget spiders, snakes, sharks, crocodiles. drop bears
I would 100% try to pet a dingo
I think the Canadian system is very much modelled after the UK?
That's interesting about Australia though. Btw I understand Australia has a ranked voting system in elections? Curious about how well that works. Our first-past-the-post is a nightmare with vote-splitting sending the "wrong" representative to the capital.
Ranked choice is first past the post with extra steps.
But doesn't it resolve the vote-splitting problem? For example, a common scenario here is you have a right-wing candidate winning in a a left-leaning district because the left's vote is split across more than one political party. Wouldn't a ranked system solve that dilemma once all the dust has settled?
Pretty sure the guy you're answering to has no idea what he's talking about. Lol
A closer US parallel might be getting appointed to the Supreme Court.