Let’s say you are an industrious visionary. You cast your acute eye towards Washington, and see how something can be fixed. But then you look at the political process, and do a double take.

Quickly, you cast your eye and dedicate your talent to other problems. Why? Because you are practical. You have seen that, to achieve a powerful enough position in, say, the United States Senate, you’d have to make the Senate your career. It takes well over a decade for your average solon to become a committee chairperson, where the real power is.Ten years to wait around for a real chance to make changes? Forget it! Social scientists cite this as an example of an “adverse preselection process.” Our current political system ensures not that the worst will get on top though they often do but that the best will never even apply.

Not long ago, when the primary process was still busy selecting a Democratic candidate, columnist David Broder backed this up. As examples of how hard it is to do anything in the Senate these days, he gave John Kerry and John Edwards, two savvy men who, as senators, accomplished almost nothing. As Broder describes it, the Senate is “a remarkable place, but it’s not the real world.”

Well, at least real-world visionaries have no place in it. To give them a chance, there’s only one solution: term limits. With no long careers possible, the Senate would have to find new ways to allocate its internal power. And maybe then it wouldn’t scare away the most talented and practical visionaries.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.