Presidential term limits: necessary and right, or bad for democracy?

U.S. President Obama reaches for a pen as he signs a bill in the Oval Office of the White House in WashingtonHere we go….the MSM Communists are finally bringing the burning question to light and easing it in like they always do just like we knew they would. Hear we go talking about it. Can’t we just talk about it? Trying to make Obama the Communist dictator for life. Expect to see more of this from other news outlets as time goes on.

Yahoo News – by Chris Nichols

The time has come to end presidential term limits, because continuing the restrictions on how long one can serve in the country’s highest office is bad for the United States, a university professor argued this week.  

In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, Jonathan Zimmerman, a history and education professor at New York University, says deciding whether a president deserves a third, fourth or more terms should be left to the American people, not the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which placed a two-term limit on the position. As background, here’s an excerpt from the amendment, ratified in 1951:

“No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.”

The amendment came into being a few years after Franklin Roosevelt was elected to the fourth of his White House terms. Known to Americans as the president during the final years of the Great Depression and most of World War II, Roosevelt, a Democrat, died in office before completing his last term. After the war, Republicans made a successful bid to install a two-term maximum for future presidents. But, according to Zimmerman, they limited not only the president’s time in office, but also “democracy itself.”

With President Obama’s job-approval numbers down sharply, Zimmerman indicates that the nation’s chief executive is perhaps being hampered by the fact that he’s in his final term, giving GOP opponents and even Democrats little incentive to support him on issues that might hurt their own re-election chances.

To illustrate his point, he uses two topics in the headlines: the implemention of the new health care law and the nuclear agreement with Iran.

He writes:

“Many of Obama’s fellow Democrats have distanced themselves from the reform and from the president. Even former president Bill Clinton has said that Americans should be allowed to keep the health insurance they have. Or consider the reaction to the Iran nuclear deal. Regardless of his political approval ratings, Obama could expect Republican senators such as Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and John McCain (Ariz.) to attack the agreement. But if Obama could run again, would he be facing such fervent objections from Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)? Probably not. Democratic lawmakers would worry about provoking the wrath of a president who could be reelected. Thanks to term limits, though, they’ve got little to fear.”

Zimmerman adds, “Nor does Obama have to fear the voters, which might be the scariest problem of all. If he chooses, he could simply ignore their will. And if the people wanted him to serve another term, why shouldn’t they be allowed to award him one?”

On this last point, he invokes George Washington, the first president of the United States. Washington, he says, stepped down after his second term, but not because he was required by law to do so. Zimmerman says Washington didn’t support enforced term limits, citing one of his letters. “I can see no propriety in precluding ourselves from the service of any man who, in some great emergency, shall be deemed universally most capable of serving the public,” Washington wrote. By leaving office, however, he did establish a precedent that would be followed for more than a century.

In his “Presidential Term Limits in American History: Power, Principles, and Politics,” Michael Korzi, a professor of political science at Towson University, cites the first president’s remark, stating that Washington departed voluntarily after his second term “more for personal reasons than for reasons of philosophy.”

Even so, the Founding Fathers had different opinions on whether to impose a mandate on term lengths, researchers indicate. (U.S. senators and representatives don’t have term limits.) Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the U.S., felt a maximum had merit. In “Jefferson Himself: The Personal Narrative of a Many-Sided American,” edited by Bernard Mayo, Jefferson referenced his dislike of the idea of an entrenched leader:

“That I should lay down my charge at a proper season is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully … . These changes are necessary, too, for the security of republican government. If some period be not fixed, either by the Constitution or by practice, to the services of the First Magistrate, his office, though nominally elective, will in fact be for life; and that will soon degenerate into an inheritance.”

As for the present, Zimmerman’s idea isn’t new, and in fact, rumor-researching website Snopes.com notes multiple proposals in recent years to repeal the 22nd Amendment. Republicans and Democrats alike have raised the issue, but none of the attempts have gotten too far.

http://news.yahoo.com/presidential-term-limits–necessary-and-right–or-bad-for-democracy-192726518.html

NC

17 thoughts on “Presidential term limits: necessary and right, or bad for democracy?

  1. Well, I guess. The only ones that this will affect are the ones that actually believe and accept the so called law of the land. What ever they do in DC doesn`t apply to us 99% ers anyway because they will do whatever they want to do anyway so it realy doesn`t matter.

  2. “….should be left to the American people, not the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution…”

    The lying Jew professor Jonathan Zimmerman said this as part of the on-going campaign to frame the constitution as “outdated” or somehow insignificant.

    Whenever someone suggests “leaving it to the American people” what they’re saying is “leave it to our rigged voting machines”.

  3. Just so you know (not like it really matters), all of the commenters (and there were thousands of them) on Yahoo were completely AGAINST ending term limits and thought this bastard was crazy, especially given the scandals and everything that’s been going on in the open in our government. It’s the very reason why we MUST have term limits for everyone in government.

  4. I think there IS a problem with term limits–presidents should be limited to ONE term! Senators and Congressmen/women as well…Supreme Court? 5 years…maybe. Now, as with Grover Cleveland, if a former president wants to run for a second time in a non-consecutive term, fine. but this BS we’ve have for many years of two-term fully-owned-by-the-banksters/oligarchs/Israel needs to end. Now!

  5. “The time has come to end presidential term limits, because continuing the restrictions on how long one can serve in the country’s highest office is bad for the United States, a university professor argued this week.”

    That first line alone should have Zimmerman hanged by a hemp rope and then taken down and shot by a firing squad, followed by every American National coming up to his body and beating his dead carcass with a stick 50 times to symbolize him beating on all 50 states of the country.

    You talk about treason and sedition, omg what this guy says makes Barry look like a saint. Only a MSM controlled by Zionists and Communists would allow this bastard’s treasonous literature to be put in print.

  6. Time limits will not make any difference. What needs be done is that they will not get paid unless they do what they say that they will do, and then only after their terms are done. If they do not do everything that they promised when they were running for office then they do not get paid one cent…… By the way didn`t the presidency start out as a non-paid position?, I am sure it did 🙂

    1. Really? The office of the president was a non-paid position? When was that? Got any proof or links on that? You got me interested.

      1. I am sure of it NC. That is why pres. Washington, and them other first presidents all had other jobs as a source of income. If they did get paid anything at all it would not have mad it worth their time anyway. Tea I have heard that from a few different sources about the first presidents didn`t get paid. something like that anyway. 🙂 I will do a search now that ya got me thinking NC 🙂

      2. I was mistaken NC. I guess when it sounds to good to be true it probobly is. I do not know where I heard that from……. Anyway here is a link for what the Pres., the vice pres., and other oficials make/made through the years. Kind of interesting………… http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/Ao875856.html …..Hope ya enjoy the link. By the way guys, sorry for my mis-info. above,

        1. So it says the president is supposed to make $400,000 a year.

          I say supposed to because it costs $1,000,000 to fly his wife and her family to Kenya for a vacation as well as to their vacation trip in Hawaii. Also, don’t forget probably another possible million dollars to airlift their dog to Martha’s Vineyard and a billion dollars for an second term inauguration which featured Billy Joel and Lady Gaga for his daughters consisting of one million each for playing around three songs.

          So where does he get the money for all of that since he is obviously, WAY OVER the $400,000 mark?

          Oh yea, CORPORATE BRIBES!!!

          Man, it all makes me sick to see how much of our wealth has been literally STOLEN from us all!

          God help us all!

  7. Oh. Well, if a so-called ‘jew’ professor said it, then it MUST be the right thing to do.

    For the Zionist AshkeNAZI so-called ‘jews’, that is.

      1. That’s why they are talking about it now. So when the country is really in turmoil in or around election time in 2016 and there is no time for an election process (as we will be basically under martial law without the media officially saying it), our Communist government will just allow Barry to continue and say, “Oh well, we were talking about getting rid of presidential term limits anyways. What the hell!” That’s how these Communist bastards work.

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