| Twice is Enough |
2 June 2003
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Clinton Calls for End to Term Limits
William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd president of the United States, ought to know better. At Harvard last week, he suggested a repeal, or at very least a refinement, to the 22nd amendment to the US Constitution -- which prevents anyone from serving a third term. Suggesting that it denies the will of the people, he called for the right to serve, at least, non-consecutive third terms. Denying the people's will is exactly why twice is enough.
In the American system of government, more than most, there are deliberate roadblocks and designed gridlock. Normally called checks and balances, these safeguards prevent one set of interests (originally regional, later ideological) from running roughshod over the rest of the nation. Just because a majority want it does not make it right -- hence the bill of rights prohibition on various kinds of Congressional action.
In the case of the presidency, only Franklin Delano Roosevelt served more than two terms to which he was elected, and then, it was during the extreme times of the Depression and World War II. However, he shouldn't have. Ancient Rome had a prohibition on serving a consulship more than once every ten years (and in suo anno a man was 42 before he could do that). The Republic became the Empire when that prohibition was dropped.
American liberty, what's left of it at least, requires a change of personnel at regular intervals. If the people can't figure out how to vote in new blood, they must have the old blood removed as a choice. In simplest terms, what conservative could stomach another term of Mr. Clinton, and what liberal could submit to four more years of Mr. Reagan. The rule of thumb is never to create power one could not abide one's enemy from wielding.