Presidential Tenure Essay

Until 1951, there was no law restricting the number of times the president of the United States could run for office. After the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress proposed the 22nd Amendment. Since its ratification, the highly controversial amendment has survived every attempted repeal. Contemporary presidents of both parties, President Regan and President Clinton, supported repealing or modifying the amendment whereas other presidents believed a repeal would result in political stagnation. While there are certain benefits of restricted term limits, the otherwise undemocratic 22nd Amendment should be repealed.

For over two decades, citizens of the United States of America have had strong feelings on the subject of congressional term limits- more specifically, the imposition of term limits on Supreme Court Justices as well as the restriction on judicial review. This controversial issue has been further publicized due to the more recent publication of Mark Levin’s book, The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Public. Levin, a talk show host, makes his term limit case in his book about several amendments that have been attempted in the past.

The Term Limits and the 1974 Budget Reform are the two reflections for week five. There has been a great debate concerning term limits. Term limits are considered to be the key point in rebuilding the relationship between the government and U. S. citizens. American citizens has lost faith in their government, because the citizens feel they are not represented, but the officials are focused on benefiting themselves. However, term limits can remove good leaders out, who may deserve to stay in office for a longer period of time. “As the authors states that “political bodies do not experience they need when there are limits on how long they can be in office. It also may keep qualified individuals from running for office” (Lee, Johnson and

The United States since its adoption of the Constitution in 1787 has accumulated total amount forty-five presidents over two-hundred and thirty years. These forty-five presidents as history and the United States continues, will be the subject of analysts throughout history, who will try to rank them from the best to the worst. The book written by James Taranto and Leonard Leo, ‘Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House’ is one of these analytical books shoving the presidents into a ranking by using a survey of professors of history, law and political science to rate them. This book by Leo and Taranto focus on a handful of prime objectives for the readers to overserve while reading the book. The first is to

In conclusion, I applied what I have learned from American Government to give an informative view into a president who had a somewhat important role in the American political system 136 years ago which still applies to today. This in return was done using the three skills I have learned: knowledge of the American political system as well as the history of it, how the events correlate to today and how to research a

The position of president has evolved in the almost quarter millennium since the framers created the Constitution. The main issues facing the framers included the position’s structure, independence, and power. Although the modern presidency is different from the framers’ design, they would approve of it, since the concerns that the framers had with the executive still have been prevented. When creating the presidency, one issue the framers decided quickly was the structure, particularly having one president. This satisfied the needs of both the Conservative and Radical Republicans, by allowing for quick action, while still providing clear accountability.

unlimited terms) must be assuaged or tempered by the fear of ‘elective dictatorship’ -a President using the advantages of having extended time in office to win one election after another. Unlimited terms will eventually lead to a dictatorship/monarchy, exactly what our country and Founding Fathers were trying to reject. History shows this to be true with historians often pointing to George Washington’s decision to retire after his second term as evidence that our nation’s founders saw a two-term limit as a protection against monarchy. Thomas Jefferson also contributed to the convention of a two-term limit when he wrote, “if some termination to the services of the chief Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life” in 1807. No President, while some did seek it, received more that two-terms in office until Franklin Roosevelt whom won four elections but died in office. After that the governor of New York, Thomas E. Dewey, announced support of what would later be the 22nd amendment. He stated, "Four terms, or sixteen years, is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed." Simply stated, America’s beginnings are based on the rejection of monarchy and cronyism: the 22nd Amendment stops this from coming about by other

European investment capital poured into the new nation in large amounts. Washington’s decision to appoint Alexander Hamilton to secretary of treasury was one of genius. The beneficial impact on America and its citizens was immense and almost unbelievable. A third decision made by President George Washington was that he willingly chose to serve only two terms in office. It was in part because he felt that the office of President should be held by citizens who wished to serve their country, not by individuals who sought complete power, and from whom the new nation had struggled so long to gain its independence. The majority of Presidents who followed Washington made this same choice, based on the precedent he established, until the two-term limit for presidents was codified into a law by the 22nd amendment. By refusing to pursue a third term, Washington made it the enduring standard that no U.S. President should seek more than two. Washington's Farewell Address was a primer on republican virtue and a stern warning against involvement in foreign wars. The impact of Washington’s retirement as President on America was an upsetting one. Many Americans looked up to Washington, and depended on him to keep America going in the right direction. Although Washington’s choice to step down came as a surprise, the people and America in general was greatly impacted and benefited by Washington’s

In holding that the president’s action was constitutional, the Court implicitly gave its approval that the president’s action could satisfy the compelling government interest burden. Justice William Rehnquist, who was not yet on the Court, would later weigh in on this case when he wrote, “An entirely separate and important philosophical question is whether occasional presidential excesses and judicial restraint in wartime are desirable or undesirable. In one sense, this question is very largely academic. There is no reason to think that future wartime presidents will act differently from Lincoln, Wilson, or Roosevelt, or that future Justices of the Supreme Court will decide questions differently than their predecessors” (Rehnquist). His point makes clear the practical implications of this case, which may be used to justify the view that the court has provided the president with a “constitutional dictatorship,” especially in times of war. The Court found a way to provide the president with almost absolute power, and that set a dangerous precedent for the future, just as Rehnquist points out.

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.

The fifth major point George Washington’s Farewell Address that is mention is “Two terms only of four years of Presidency”. The Presidents of United States who had served their two terms in the White House but were also obligated in some time to be able to serve four terms were not allowed to because in the Amendment, it doesn’t state that “a president is allowed to serve more than two terms itself”.

It was passed by Congress in 1947 on March 21 and was ratified on Feb. 27, 1951 almost four years later. Not too long ago, many presidents had actually considered running for more than two terms. Ulysses. Grant, Grover Cleveland, and Theodore Roosevelt unsuccessfully tried to and only Franklin Roosevelt succeeded. He won a third and fourth term. A few years later, Congress took into consideration a proposal to limit presidency to two terms. The 22nd amendment was debated, passed, and ratified without much drama. I would change this amendment because with proper background searches, voting, and careful consideration I think it’d be very wise to have the availability to keep a president in office for more than two terms if citizens agree to it. I think that there should be a limit but not at exactly two terms. I believe that it should be up to the people voting to decide who is president and for how long they want to keep that person their president, especially if they’re doing well in office. You can find the amendment process in the two ways that amendments are proposed. Amendments can be proposed by Congress if at least 2/3 of the members of both the House of Representatives (290) and the senate (67) vote for it. Step 1 in amending the constitution is that two-thirds of both houses of Congress pass a constitutional amendment. This sends the amendment to the states for ratification. Three-fourths of

However, Professor Sabato studies have shown that a four year term is too short for a president, since “under current conditions in most circumstances, a president has less than two years in office during his first term before reelection politics begin intensively” (Sabato 84). To resolve this presidential timing problem, one must change the number of terms in a year. According to Sabato, the president’s first term would change from four years to six years, and the second term (if the president is reelected) will be an extra two years. In addition, for reelection, the president will run for office against himself, whether the president would be re elected into presidency or not. This way, not only does the president not have to “worry about reelection” and would “focus on the true national interest rather than his personal election interests,” but also the president has more time in office his first term to fulfill those responsibilities and obligations.

Since the creation of the United States of America, the power of the President has increased dramatically. Specifically, regarding foreign affairs, the power of the President has greatly increased. According to foreign policy specialist Michael Cairo, the Constitution originally gave Congress the majority of war powers. While the formal powers of Congress include the power to declare war, raise and support an army, and regulate commerce, the President was only meant to mainly be Commander in Chief and negotiate treaties in regard to foreign affairs. The President’s role of leading the armed forces may seem like it would give him the authority on all issues regarding foreign affairs, but this power was granted to the President so that he could react quickly if a national emergency occurs. Although Congress was originally given the majority of war powers, Presidents have begun to utilize unilateral authority in the realm of foreign policy. In the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and more recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, the President deployed troops without a declaration of war from Congress.

The legislative body, our Congress, is responsible for making laws that benefit the people. The four kinds of representations include: symbolic representation, policy representation, allocated representation and casework all of which are set to insure that the American citizens are being protected from a tyrannical government. Checks and balances demonstrate that each body of government is able to “check” or ensure that each branch is supplied equal power. Therefore congress can regulate and “check” the executive branch. We learn how a bill can become vetoed or signed when it is passed to the president and then to both houses of Congress who must gain a full two-third majority vote to override a presidential veto. Political parties that vote on laws are passed based on the most dominant party in each house. This is because of the concept that majority rules, the party with the most seats in the house of congress will get the most votes. In chapter eight we discuss that presidents want to retire their presidential duties leaving a great legacy, but often times they do make promises that they cannot keep not because they do not want to make everyone happy but because politics gets in the way and not all things and everyone in politics can not be