The Time Has Come for Term Limits

The 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1951, partially states the following: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. This, of course, came on the heels of the wildly popular Franklin Delano Roosevelt being elected to the office of president a record four (4) times, beginning in 1932, and continuing to his final election victory in 1944. One is left to wonder if Roosevelt would have gone on to win a 5th or even 6th term had he not died shortly into his 4th and final term in 1945. Our very first president, George Washington, could have been elected to a third term but declined it, suggesting two (2) terms of four (4) years were enough for any president. In 1797, he quietly returned to Mount Vernon. His two-term example became an unwritten rule in the realm of presidential politics until FDR dramatically altered that notion in the first half of the 20th century.

I believe the time has finally come for a similar term limitation policy to be adopted by the US Senate and US House of Representatives. The nature of politics has evolved into this blatant power struggle between us against them, or them against us. Everything in congress is now an epic battle for establishing and maintaining power for your party and castigating the opposition party into a completely subservient role. This would be a fine strategy if you were participating in a monopoly tournament or a Super Bowl Championship. However, events such as those, hopefully, don't have any long range dramatic impact on peoples' lives. Clearly the purpose of our elected 535 member legislative branch of government should be to work for us instead of working to screw each other over. I would hope the most powerful legislative branch of government in the world is more concerned with working for the interests of the American people, than plotting and scheming against the opposition party while solidifying their own personal interests.