Should The President Have Term Limits?

George Washington, our first president, knew that everything he did would be a guide for America to follow after his time as president ended. He was one of the fathers of the constitution and was looked at as a guide for democracy. So when he declined the offer to run for a third term as president it set a precedent that presidents since have all followed, with the exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Following Roosevelt’s Presidency, in 1947 the twenty-second amendment to the constitution was passed, officially limiting a president to serve no more than two terms. If this is an important enough issue that we apply it to our president, then it is important enough that we apply it to our state senators and representatives as well. Over the past thirty years, the issue of term-limits for state legislators has become increasingly important. In the early 1900s senators served an average of six and half years while representatives served an average of three and a half years (Johnson and
However, this just is not true. This is no different than limiting the number of terms a president may serve. Anyone is able to run for office, provided they meet the requirements, my proposal just limits them amount of time they can serve. This will lower corruption and prevent any one person from getting too much power. There are alternate proposals and they have been implemented in other states. For example, some states have a twelve year combined term limit (NCSL). So one person would only be able to serve twelve years in both the House and Senate. This does not allow for much time for those legislators to gain experience. This would result in exactly what some people are afraid of, lack of expertise in our legislature. My proposal allows two terms in the Senate and four terms in the House of Representatives. This allows politicians to gain experience writing