In the Federalist No. 72, Alexander Hamilton states that re-eligibility should be ensured in order to prevent an executive from extending his term in office unconstitutionally. Hamilton presents five effects that would occur if a president would only be allowed to serve for a single term. Some of the effects that Hamilton presented are, a reduction in the president’s motivation to be on his best behavior since he would not be concerned about getting re-elected. Another issue that would result if re-eligibility would be denied is that if a president who holds office is obsessed with wealth he might get involved in corruption since he would soon be prohibited from office. The author’s purpose is to establish re-eligibility in order for an executive…
This article talks about the second-term curse; the perceived tendency of second terms of recent U.S presidents to be less successful than their first terms. According to the "curse", the second terms of recent presidents have usually been plagued by a major scandal, policy inertia, some sort of catastrophe, or other problems. In the article “Second Chances”, the author suggests some ideas about how President Obama can avoid a unsuccessful second-term. He talks about the failures of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and most recently George W. Bush, who were the victims of the ‘curse’ and by looking at these two-term stars, he explains how and why Obama might be more blessed than cursed.…
SECTION 1. No person who has served three terms as a Representative shall be eligible for election to the House of Representatives. For purposes of this section, the election of a person to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives shall be included as one term in determining the number of terms that such person has served as a Representative if the person fills the vacancy for more than…
George Washington’s Presidency established the rule that a president was only supposed to serve two terms in office. This unwritten rule was only ever broken by Franklin Roosevelt during WW II, and it later became an Amendment to the Constitution. Second, Washington talked at great length about isolationism in his farewell address, specifically citing that America should avoid foreign entanglements in Europe.…
Ellie started with Aristotle and described his six forms of government. She wanted to repeal the 22nd amendment that limited a President’s term to eight years total. She talked about checks, circumstances, and qualities. Ellie started to point out what might their opposing team would say: “One shall not hold ALL the power”. However, she rebutted the claim by saying, “If the Americans want a President to stay for sixteen years then he should ought to people, by the people, for the people”. She used Franklin D. Roosevelt as an example on how 22nd Amendment should be repealed. FDR helped the U.S out of depression, which took him four terms to do. Ellie argued that he would not be able to do it if he only served for two terms. Also, it could not happen if we have two different conflicting ideas.…
Who doesn’t love some fresh air? Who doesn’t love new ways of thinking and less corruption? The answer is: no one. Yet in our current republican democracy in the United States there are term limits for the president, but not for congressmen. Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every even year.…
This group, however, was not the first to speak in support of presidents holding more than two, four-year terms in office. One of the earliest such people was Alexander Hamilton with his plan for how the president should be elected, which was discussed in class. The Hamilton plan of a “life monarch”, who was free from public control, was not exactly what those against the twenty-second amendment had in mind, but it is probably similar to what the supporters of the amendment most likely…
Presidents today have too much power. Originally the President of the United States was only supposed to have a very limited amount of power, based on Article II of the Constitution. Documents A, D, E, and F prove that the president was supposed to have limited power but, other members of Congress can veto the presidents ideas. Document A and document E that the president was supposed to have limited powers but ultimately they are unlimited. One specific piece of evidence that I found was, “The President was given ONLY the powers included in Article II of the US Constitution.”…
Two-term Presidency was a policy George Washington believed should be followed by future presidents because he did not want to give the impression that the president was like a elected king. This precedent lasted until Franklin D. Roosevelt served more than two terms. This precedent has a great impact on presidents that possess the ability to continue has president.…
A congress basher would see this as beneficial so they can get more opportunities to gain control in congress, but the reality is this only further weakens the powers of congress because with such short terms constantly up for reelection it is difficult, and almost impossible to achieve anything. Polsby notes the importance and the difficutly of the jobns members of congress have. He specifies with hey manage small group offices and attempt to please ther constituents. They serve on committees that oversee executive branch activity. They participate in general legislative work. They keep track of their own political business and they educate the people they come in contact with. These are just a few of the many duties of congress members, and there is reason things take so long in congress. Each member has to deal with all of the fore mentioned and more. One would be crazy to expect a member of congress to be successful in all of this in less than the current 6 year term. Polsby points out the reason so many members get reelected and it’s because they pay attention to the wants of their constituents. Bashers complain about the high reelection rates but the reason is clear, and this idea of a shortened term will only harm congress. Like Polsby, I think this attempt at congressional reform is a poor idea and can do nothing but harm the governmental system.…
I disagree. When I first started learning about Johnson I did have similar beliefs but as I dug deeper into his motives during his presidency I found out that he was pretty brilliant. The Tenure of Office Act did not serve any purpose besides weakening the president's power, Johnson thought of this as unconstitutional. He knew that there would have to be some drama in order to get this act tried in the supreme court which is why he broke the law in the first place. This was such an intelligent move on Johnson’s part. His plan ended up working because the Tenure of Office Act was tried in the supreme court and officially repealed in 1887. Though Johnson may not have been the nicest guy he was still extremely smart. I think Johnson was a great politician because he set out with an end goal in mind and his goal was…
Having an unlimited number of terms is very excessive. People would become tired of the same president for years and years. This allows prohibits those who don’t support the president to have the same person, with the same ideas run the country for years on end. Congress would be tired of working with the same president so little would get accomplished. The 22nd amendment was put in place after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president for four terms. Since he ended up dying during his four term congress created the amendment limiting a president to only two terms. By adding this amendment to the constitution, it prevents the president from causing corruption and becoming senile as they become older. I also don’t agree with idea of having a president only be able to serve one term that last six years because that would be a very lengthy amount of time for only one term. Holding an election every six years seems like too long a time to get the opinions of new generations. Elections measure the opinion of the public, so holding election every six years wouldn’t be an accurate representation of our country as a whole. Having a term be four years allows the people to vote for other candidates if they don’t support the current president or their beliefs have changed. It also allows us to keep the same president for another 4 years if they are a good leader for the…
Congressional term limits will make possible what the framers imagined when they created the Constitution in 1787. At the time the Constitution was drafted, career politicians did not exist and were consequently not taken into account. Yet today, career politicians fill the majority of the seats in Congress. This situation goes completely against Federalist No. 62, in which James Madison writes, “Every new election in the States is found to change one half of the representatives. From this change of men must proceed a change of opinions; and from a change of opinions, a change of measures.” Term limits will enforce this idea, and if added to the Constitution, will improve on American democracy by renewing competition in elections and providing better representation of citizens within Congress.…
Term limits have been in place since George Washington served as the first president in 1789, but there has been debate if they should be in place at all(Reed, “Why Term Limits?”) Having term limits is essential, in some people’s opinions. Term limits in place ensure that a president…
In our nation, those who obtain power through the electoral process have substantial authority in making decisions that will ultimately impact the entire country. We, the people, have the perspicacious challenge of choosing those who will make the decisions up on good old Capitol Hill. Although we do chose who we want to run the show and make the big decisions, we cannot control the actions and conscientiousness of those officials. Unbeknownst to most in our country, those who seem to want what is best for the country as a whole have more selfish intentions that are unseen during the campaigning process. There is a reason why the President has been limited to two terms: we do not want our national government to become one that is administrated…