I was watching a clip of Sen. Ben Sasse on Colbert, and he repeated an idea that I've heard countless times since forever:
"The Founders didn't have a vision of the world where people wanted to be in politics, move to DC, and stay there forever. You're supposed to think the place you're from is the most interesting place in the world. We use the term historically "public service," because you go to Washington to serve for a time then go back home. Right now most people in Washington, their biggest long-term thought is about their own incumbency."
As the audience did the obligatory applause for this feel-good truism, I realized that every Founder I could name off the top of my head was a lifelong politician with about 30 years working in federal politics and government.
Is there any truth to this notion at all? Certainly, it's wrong to say that Jefferson or Madison couldn't imagine it. Was that ever the "norm" for national politics? If it was merely an aspirational desire, was it ever acheived to any degree? And why did so many of them discard that ideal to further their own careers?
There is a long standing debate about the nature of elected office.
On the one hand is the delegate model of representation. Our elected legislators are there to express the interests of the people who elect them. They should not express their own conscience nor invoke their own expertise where it conflicts with the interests or opinions of the constituency. In this model, the representative should be of short-duration for fear that their will be captured by the interests and fashions of the capital. Sasse is arguing this view.
This model was contested most famously by Edmund Burke in his formulation of the trustee model of representation in 1774. The people select a trustee who is somewhat autonomous and may act in the common good or the national interest, as opposed to the parochial interests of the constituency. Burke encapsulated this as:
"Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion."
Burke is considered the father of modern British conservatism. He was a leading MP during the Revolution, lending his support to the grievances of the American colonies and promoting a peaceful reconciliation between Britain and America in advance of Lexington and Concord. The founding fathers were not only aware of Burke, but intimately and actively involved in that exact debate.
Sources:
Burke's Speech to the Electors at Bristol at the Conclusion of the Poll (1774) from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. Volume I (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854)