Stafford High School
Term limits control how politicians work and how they view their job
Christian Werner Carrara
ECE Political Science
Mr. Shearer Most people have known about the more recent constitutional amendment that deals with term limits. The 22nd amendment prohibits the President of the United States from being elected more than two terms (22nd Amendment 1). This amendment was made in response to the reelection of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt was reelected, for the 3 time, to his 4th consecutive term as president. Unfortunately, Roosevelt died in office in his fourth term and this ended what could have been a “career Presidency.” That is exactly why congress passed the 22nd amendment, to stop people from
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This has caused a lack of leaders and lack of knowledge of the legislator’s job. The short term limits have caused tremendous turnover of legislators who are enter the state or town legislature. With the lack of legislators with experience from years of being in the State Legislature there are no real leaders who could teach the new legislator how to run the legislature. Many leaders are first year legislators who run due to the lack of availability of veteran legislators who were in the legislature for a long time. With the first year status, the leaders have trouble controlling or influencing their house of the state legislature. The good of the term limits is it makes the leadership races very contested due to the lack of voting or determining beforehand, because there is no beforehand so the leadership hopefuls have to run and run against multiple people. With the majority of leadership races relying on re-election and raising money are more important than “... the value of legislative experience and institutional knowledge—factors that played a key role in leadership selection before term limits—is neutralized by term limits.” (Bowser, Chi, and Little 8). The value of legislative experience and institutional knowledge is extremely limited which is a problem, because the government is lacking on knowledge on how to its job, but with leaders, who can, being re-elected leaders who have prior knowledge the government becomes more
Theodore Roosevelt stepped into head of office on September 19, 1901 when President William McKinley was assassinated. He was the youngest man to become president. His motto was “speak softly but carry a big stick.” President Roosevelt would come into power offering America the square deal. He would take the power away from the industrialists as he controlled big business from the White House. He would soon become known as a TrustBuster. Roosevelt used American power for American interests and was quoted as saying, “I am an American first and last. “ Although some historians argue that Roosevelt acted like a six-year-old throughout his presidency and that he didn’t think things through, ie “he thought with his hips”, one can admire the tremendous leadership qualities that Teddy Roosevelt had. First, he was a very bold man who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. The average citizen was aware of what a “positive, warm and tough, authoritative and funny” president that they had leading them. His leadership qualities stemmed from his time as a New York state Assembly man, a deputy sheriff, a ...
Preventing federal judges to serve for life is a good concept, except when the judges become too old to continue presiding. Setting term limits for judges would be a great idea, because it would add diversity to the court systems every time a new judge arrives. Some judges are just too old, and senile, to still rule on cases and do their job effectively; therefore, setting term limits would ultimately benefit the courts because it would allow for diversity, and a new judge who may have different standards.
Theodore Roosevelt may be one of the more notable personalities which have graced the oval office since 1789. Roosevelt’s disposition has been characterized as daring, brash, and ambitious. This image has been molded by stories and events throughout his life, which range from expeditions through the Amazon to giving a speech soon after being shot in the torso. (Andrews)
Government exists to serve the people, and not the politicians, American citizens know this. Polls show that Americans want term limitation by margins as high as three-to-one, even four-to-one. Congressional term limitation is the most important issue of our time because the future direction of our country depends upon it. There is no other way to restore government to, us, the people. There is no substitute for term limits. There are many second steps, depending upon where you sit, but there is only one first step toward turning the country around. It is con...
Franklin D. Roosevelt attended Harvard University and then Columbia Law School, but did not graduate from law school. Roosevelt was the only president to be elected for four consecutive terms. He led the American government through the Great Depression and World War II until his death on April 12, 1945. He has been categorized as one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election in 1932 against Herbert Hoover. By 1936 Roosevelt’s political party, the Democrats, held the majority in the Congress in the House and the Senate.
Firstly, FDR did not reach the white house the same way that his 5th cousin Teddy did. FDR had campaigned for the Presidency, against the incumbent Herbert Hoover. FDR was a Democrat; and felt that the government needed to do more to help its people. Hoover a Republican; did not believe in direct government intervention. He believed in voluntarism, asking working corporations to voluntarily improve working conditions and wages. In 1932, Roosevelt was elected president. On the other hand, Teddy instead, campaigned for Vice President in 1901, with President William McKinley. He was a Republican, who served as Governor of New York. After the election ended, William McKinley was assassinated in September of 1901. Theodore Roosevelt had been sworn
The 22nd Amendment creates a lame duck and which stops abuse of power3. Presidents in their second term have been seen to usually suffer diminished power, particularly after the second midterm elections. This diminish of power creates a lame duck. The president becoming a lame duck, stops him from being able abuse of power. The 22nd Amendment also stops the country from being a monarchy. US. Senators and Congressmen don’t have term limits because their voices are balanced by opposing parties in their chambers, the presidency is different. The president has no similar
Term limits could increase the quality of the Supreme Court nominees. One of the driving factors behind a Supreme Court nominee is their age (Ringhand np). Individuals over 60 years of age are less likely to be appointed. This means presidents intentionally exclude a large number of highly qualified individuals from serving on our nation’s highest court (Ringhand np). Term limits resolve this problem. Furthermore, the threat of a justice’s cognitive decline may be reduced, since there would no longer be a temptation to hold out for a strategically timed retirement.
The 22nd amendment was passed by Congress in 1947 and ratified by the states by 1951. In which this document or amendment limited the terms of the president to two four year terms. It helps limit the power the president can receive and prevent them from getting “king like powers” it from turning into a monarchy.
When the United States was founded, the theme behind the new government was to establish an efficient system without doling out too much power to any one person. The Founders intended to prevent a rebirth of tyranny, which they had just escaped by breaking away from England. However, when members of Congress such as Tom Foley, who served as a Representative from 1964 through 1995, and Jack Brooks, who served as a Representative from 1952 through 1994, remain in the legislative system for over forty years, it is evident that tyranny has not necessarily been eradicated from the United States (Vance, 1994, p. 429). Term limits are a necessity to uphold the Founders’ intentions, to prevent unfair advantages given to incumbents, and to allow a multitude of additional benefits.
Congressional terms have no limits. Controversy exists between those who think the terms should be limited and those who believe that terms should remain unlimited. The group that wants to limit the terms argues that the change will promote fresh ideas and reduce the possibility of decisions being made for self-interest. Those who oppose term limits believe that we would sacrifice both the stability and experience held by veteran politicians. They also point out that our election process allows the voter to limit terms, at their discretion. While experience and stability are important considerations, congressional terms should be limited to a maximum of two.
Though, it would be refreshing to elect an official who remained focused on the best interest of their constituent, the reality is, special interest groups hold the purse. We must set term limits to prevent corruption and give the new comer on the block a fighting
If you leave one person in congress for too long then they will never change their views and nothing new will ever get done. If there was a three of four term limit then people would work harder to get things done faster and pass bills that benefit the people because they know that they will only get reelected now because of that. With term limits in place, Congress will be more responsible toward their constituents because they will soon be constituents themselves. They...
In other words, because they have and know they can be re-elected time after time, they become less concerned about what they actually want to accomplish in office. With term limits, one would know how long they have to be in office, which would encourage them more to have an agenda and actually make a difference in Congress. As John Adams, the second president of the United States once said, “Without term limits every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.” This has been proven many times, and recently by Alaska democratic representative Don Young, who is currently the second-longest serving member in the House today. Young was accused and investigated by the FBI for “systemic abuse,” including earmarking millions of dollars from the federal government to build a highway interchange in Florida, however in reality the contractor whom was being paid was a supporter and donor to Young’s re-election campaign.
Despite all of the positives about incumbency, incumbents should worry a little about their actions, and the actions of the legislature. The incumbent is always held responsible for the state of the government and the nation as a whole at the time of the election, so this is the main advantage a challenger has against an incumbent. A prime example of this backfiring is when President Obama