We have the power

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

Last week the Nevada Supreme Court found that the law is the law and the Nevada Constitution required that the state’s term limits amendment be upheld.

Although the court’s decision was unanimous, we should remember that the justices weren’t dealing with the public policy merits of term limits but whether the initiative was constitutional. It’s not up to the justices to make policy.

As we noted in a Saturday editorial after the court’s decision, term limits is poor policy. In time, we believe, voters will come to rue their decision to handcuff future voters, which very well may include themselves.

The current situation reminds us of public opinion polls taken during an election year, when voters are asked their view of Congress. Typically, those polled have a dismal take on the legislative body as a whole. But, when Election Day rolls around, many of these same voters reelect their members of the House or Senate by wide margins.

Why?

It’s actually quite simple. Despite their view of the institution, they like the job their representative or senator is doing on their behalf and want to send him back to champion their interests.

Voters, over the next couple of elections, very well could come to regret voting for the initiatives in 1994 and 1996 because they won’t be able to keep their representatives, whether at the local or at the state level.

We’re positive the residents of Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury’s district would have loved to see him return for another term — along with people who live throughout Clark County and have benefited from having such a progressive and thoughtful elected official.

It is our hope that someday voters will decide that term limits was a mistake and will pass a constitutional amendment freeing the hands of the electorate once again. After all, each of us has the power of term limits at our disposal: We can simply go to the polls and boot out the incumbent. Now that’s democracy in its purest form.