Nemo me impune lacessit

No one provokes me with impunity

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No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Article 1, Section 9, Constitution of the United States

If this is the law of the land...why in a republic (little r) and as republicans, do we allow mere POLITICIANS to the right to use a "title of office" for the rest of their lives as if it were de facto a patent of nobility. Because, as republicans, this should NOT be the case...just saying...

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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Has the Time Come for Term Limits?

I have come to the conclusion that the time has come for an Amendment to the Federal Constitution limiting the terms for elected officials. We already limit the number of consecutive terms (or perhaps the number of terms) that the President may serve:

Amendment 22 - Presidential Term Limits. Ratified 2/27/1951. History

1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President, when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.


Now we must limit the number of terms that our politicians may serve in elected federal offices. I submit that the founding father's never intended that we should have a "professional political class". Merely reading the Federalist Papers will quickly disabuse you of the notion the politicians would hold life long office. (link/copy paste: http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers ). The original idea was that CITIZEN legislators would be elected to congress...work at enacting those bills their constituents deemed necessary for the commonweal, then return to their homes as private citizens.

An amendment to the Federal Constitution limiting Congressmen/women to 4 terms, and Senators to 2 terms would go a long way to eliminating "family" seats in the US Senate (i.e. the Cabot/Lodge & Kennedy seats). Additionally it would tend to limit the ability of "special interests" in "buy" congressmen (i.e Abramoff, Chris Dodd), because these men and women wouldn't have the longevity in office.

Additionally, vast sums would be saved in the "retirement" system of Congress as NO-ONE would be permitted to "retire" from office! (in other words the only reason Congress bailed out AIG was because their retirement funds were invested in the company).

What say you?

1 comment:

Donald Borsch Jr. said...

Definitely, Yes! Like you said, we need to eliminate "political families". (Politics is just acting for people too ugly for Hollywood.) Can you imagine if there was a form of State lottery, wherein people were selected, like for jury duty, to serve as their State's Senator or Representative for one year, and then someone else would step in? Hm. I like it.

Yes, definitely, term limits all around. The best way to beat corruption is to not let it take root to begin with.