Saturday is Term Limits Day.
Boy, this holiday season really sneaked up on me.
No excuse, though, because Term Limits Day falls on February 27th every year. On that date in 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, limiting the president to two terms in office.
Call it the constitutionalization of the small-r republican example George Washington set so well by voluntarily stepping down after two terms as chief executive. That “tradition” lasted for nearly 150 years . . . until FDR sought and won a third term in 1940.
In addition to presidential limits, tomorrow let’s also cheer term limits on 15 state legislatures (including big states such as California, Florida, Ohio, Michigan), and those covering 36 governors as well as thousands of local elected officials, including in nine of the nation’s ten largest cities.
Of course, while we celebrate Term Limits Day — in this pandemic, mostly on social media — let’s remember where mandatory rotation out of elected office does not exist, yet is most desperately needed: Congress.
Since career politicians aren’t going to term-limit themselves, U.S. Term Limits has launched a “national effort to bypass Congress and put term limits on House and Senate through the Term Limits Convention.” The convention requires 34 state legislatures to take action and that in turn requires us to act at the grassroots in our states.
Already there is impressive movement. In the last week, resolutions for a Term Limits Convention have passed through key committees and entire chambers in Arizona, Georgia, and North Dakota. Much more is in the pipeline.
Term Limits Day, tomorrow, makes a great day for a contribution to the term limits cause. But there’s no time better than the present.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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3 replies on “Happy Term Limits Day!”
This is brilliant. As far as I am concerned limiting the terms of representatives is the most important thing we can do to assure the health and perpetuation of our democracy. Once we get that done, we can begin to neutralize the influence of special interest and big money. Please let me know if there is some way I may be of assistance.
Isn’t this in effect Obama’s third term?
There’s no such thing as a “Term Limits Convention.” If a constitutional convention is held, it may propose term limits, but it can and will also propose anything else it damn well pleases.
And if anyone thinks the content of such proposals will likely be, on balance, pro-freedom, that thing they’re doing that they think is thinking isn’t.