If We Didn't Have Term Limits

... and GWB ran again, would he win? Just curious ...

but, it's making me re-think the whole term-limit thing (if votes are fairly counted, that is ...)

I realize we may lose a good third term for a good president once a generation or so, but I think it's worth it to avoid the president for life crap that other countries suffer under.

I think it's only natural for any group to become more entrenched, sedentary and corrupt the longer they're in power. I think a change every eight years is on the whole a positive.

I'd like to see it in the Legislature too.

He wouldn't win the primary.

... in a 2000 race against GWBush?

IMO Clinton could have been reelected in 2000. Also believe that Reagan could have had a third term. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good.
I do not see any reason to overturn the XXII Amendment to the Constitution.

don't even think it.

This whole Chavez seeking no term limits deal has just got me thinking ... but I haven't really thought about it much until now - the term-limits angle. Just throwing a minnow out there to see if any one wants to discuss it, since I'm waffling.

Sid

to fuck it up

for Bush to be re-elected? Just curious ...

He was installed by the United States Supreme Cowards. :dem:

I agree.

So, granted, we have no basis to compare our present voting "system" to that of Venezuela's re: Chavez and his new proposal of no term limits.

Was FDR really the only president who served more than 2 terms? I think so, but I haven't done the research.

If so, why was that such a bad thing with an honest voting system?

Just throwing it out there - open-minded to whatever ...

1947, pushed by a newly Republican congress obviously uneasy with FDR's reign, passed the term-limit legislation.

Something I didn't know until tonight. Hmmmm.

...hmmmmm (a quote). Slingblade keeps poppin' into my head.

Yeah, I sometimes sound like a broken record. but, my aim is true ...

not ashamed to be compared with a slow-learner at all.

Honestly, never really found my way to learning about where term-limits came from ... now, I'm getting somewhere.

A good portion of the population got beat up if they tried to vote, more than one precinct really did live by the motto "vote early and often", and lots and lots of dead people were credited as voting.

I doubt you'll ever get a perfectly clean election anywhere on the planet.

I'm truly curious to know what the climate of the day was. I'd love to discover that term limits were passed as a way to counter-act that which you speak of.

Term limits were passed because it was the only way corporate thugs had any chance in hell to destroy unions.

I re-read your post a fewe times, but don't get the "destroying unions" part. Sincerely curious ...

I'm still shocked they never had FDR murdered. It was FDR and his support of unions that fought for and won nearly all the worker rights and consumer protections in this country. -- Really screwed up the profit margins of the ultra wealthy too. For a time.

They'll keep plugging away until social security is gone along with worker's comp, a safe food supply (which we are pretty much already there on that). Likely not in my lifetime but corporatists will manage to get the child labor laws revoked.

Term limits has been very helpful in giving Americans the illusion of shared power and a protection against losing the post WW2 American lifestyle granted in very large part by unions.

Unions vs. term-limits

Seems to fit in with what is going on in Venezuela.

But, I'm just beginning to understand the connections you're making. just wanted to say thanks!


Muh brain works slowly ... I like it that way.

the other side figured he was all that stood between them and communism. He was a sop to the Farmer Laborites that were gaining ground.

But, really ... I wonder ... does anybody have any fast info on the history of the term-limit legislation?

I can and will research it myself, but if it's of any interest to folks, go for it ...

The media and the voting machines would give him just enough of an edge.

We hope.

... is there a reason to hope that he will or won't leave office?

because that would make my simple inquiry of term-limits look really stupid.

Thanks.

It's called history. All prior presidents have left office when their terms expired. He will too. Aside from the fact that it's pretty clear, he wants out.

I don't see him as wanting out. If anything, I see him as so power-crazed that he wants to continue. Yes, every other president has left office on time, so what? The Bush admin provably stole one election and probably stole a second, are they suddenly supposed to develop some new respect for the system?

And if you're going to offer me a bet, don't bother. That's a sucker bet, anything could happen between now and then.

It's on the outside of ridiculous to suggest bush won't leave office.

That's pretty far out dude.



I mean, way out brother!

So was legalised torture, so was two stolen elections, so was the day-in, day-out shredding of the Consttitution, so was...

since Bush got in.

He would cancel each election, he would declare martial law, etc.

Twenty years after he retires, I suppose there will still be DU'ers claiming that he will mount a coup and come back into office. Somehow he has become a mythical bogeyman, and after each prediction of a cancelled election comes to naught, it doesn't mean anything. A week later there's a post on how he'll cancel the next ones then.

Brazillions... dontchyathink?

He can count on a rock-solid base of about 25% of the population who would vote for Jack The Ripper if he had an (R) after his name and he can probably count on Diebolding enough races and scaring enough voters (through staged terror attacks if necessary) to stay in power.

I mean, never say never, but I don't think * could overcome those in-the-ditch approval ratings. He would have very little appeal to voters beyond his base.

At the same time, I would support abolishing Presidential term limits. I don't believe there's any real need for them.

I think that anyone or any group gets more entrenched, more arrgant, more corrupt the longer they stay in power. It's just a natural progression.

Yes, we may lose a good third term every generation or so, but I think it's worth it to avoid the president for life crap that other countries suffer under.

shenaningans which likely muted the Democratic victory in 2006 quite a bit, but now performed much more seriously and with volume.

How long before the media begins praising our high 70% voter turnout in 2008 (really the usual 50% but with A LOT of stuffed votes, as they did in the cities in 2004, check scoop.nz's story)?

I want to believe this would not be the absolute case, but the evidence is there and I cannot believe in fairy tales until I see them with my own eyes.

Anyway, as with the previous "elections" 2000-6, 2008 and Fred ThomBush will tell us alot. The MSM runup to the "election" will tell us alot, too, the same old Gore/Kerry script and the MSM following along like the Pied Piper of Hamlin.