Statesmanship

It's been said that shortly before JFK was assassinated, he told an aide that if he were re-elected, he would pull out of Vietnam no matter how unpopular it made him. "So we had better make damned sure I am re-elected," he is said to have concluded.

It is a serious flaw in a system of government that it would encourage its top executive to delay or even discard moves in the best interest of the country for the political advantage it would provide for a re-election. Here the revered martyr Kennedy is saying outright that he will not do what he believes necessary and right for the country unless and until he is granted a second term of office. Not to knock the late JFK, but whatever that is, it sure ain't statesmanship.

When the CSA was founded, their constitution called for a President to serve a single six-year term without chance of re-election. I'm thinking that is an idea whose time came a long time ago, but it is surely relevant today. Sitting presidents spend at least 25% of their first term trying to get re-elected. I really do not see how the nation derives any advantage from this.

-- Mal

Elected officials are SUPPOSED to be concerned about getting re-elected, the last thing we want is power that is unaccountable to the electorate, that is what we have now, and it sucks.