[StanislavPetrov]

>If people want congressional term limits, they'll vote in representatives that promise to enact them.

This presupposes both that the system is representative of the will of the people and that people act rationally in their own self-interest, both of which are provably false. For example, 88% of Americans think Marijuana should be legal federally, both medical and recreational marijuana. Overwhelming majorities have held this view for years. Did they vote in representatives that promised to enact them? And this is on an issue where 88% of Americans agree. Rarely will you get such widespread agreement by Americans on any issue.

This isn't to say that people actually want term limits, that's an entirely separate debate, only that the fact that term limits haven't been implemented is no barometer for that.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/11/22/americans-o...

[tptacek]

They did not vote in legalization representatives, because the issue had very little salience in elections. Even when serious pollsters run issue polls (many highly-publicized polls are commissioned by advocacy groups, and their outcomes are a foregone conclusion), the poll generally measures the issue in a vacuum, but doesn't come close to assessing what people will actually motivate people to vote.