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Casting A Vote For
Presidential Term Limits
By David Keele
I’m
voting for John F. Kerry for president this November 2nd.
It’s not because of President George W. Bush and his presidential
record. It’s not because of John
F. Kerry and his presidential campaign promises.
I can assure you it’s not because of Michael Moore.
It’s because I believe in reducing the term limits for the American
presidency from the possibility of two consecutive terms of four years to one,
single term of four years. The 22nd
Amendment to the United States Constitution doesn’t go far enough for me.
Sadly, it goes too far for the likes of President Clinton.
Then again, this isn’t the first issue where Clinton and I haven’t
seen eye to eye.
There
are several reasons I believe in reducing them.
For one thing, it would force the federal government to work better,
harder and quicker at the executive and the legislative levels, at least in
theory. Oh, the optimism
overflowing from every pore in every skin at the Democratic National Convention
has rubbed off on me. Trust me, I
know big government’s shoddy reputation.
One can hope though can’t one?
Another
reason I believe in reducing them is because I fear centralized concentrations
of power in the executive branch. The
current, Republican presidency and its Democratic predecessor are clear examples
of excesses of power in the White House. Such
excesses result in secrecy in the administrations, love-hate relationships in
the media, anarchy and apathy in the American people.
We’re better off without than with the effects of those excesses.
A
third reason I feel they ought to be reduced is to inspire presidents to return
to true ‘civil service.’ Remember,
they are the servants of America, not the rulers of its citizenry.
If anything, we reign and rule over them.
We’re their ladies and lords. President
Abraham Lincoln saw things my way. He
believed as I do, that we’re a free government of the people, by the people
and for the people. I place a
special emphasis on of the people.
Adv:
What
does the government know about you?
Fourthly,
and equally as important as the first three reasons, a one-term presidency would
bring balance to the race for the presidency.
No longer would there be an incumbent advantage because there wouldn’t
be any incumbents running. Imagine
if the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees were forced to focus on
the cultural, political, religious and social presidential campaign issues that
really matter. What’s more,
imagine if the president actually did his or her job for a full four years
rather than a mere three years, spending one year on the campaign trail stumping
for himself or herself and the political party he or she calls home.
I’m
twenty-four years old, a registered Independent voter.
I’m too young to have adopted an ideological label or a political
philosophy. I don’t call myself,
nor do I consider myself to be, conservative or liberal.
I don’t believe the issue of term limits is a Democratic cause or a
Republican cause. Apparently, they
don’t either, for very few elected officials believe in my nonpartisan cause.
I
welcome opposing points of view on the issue of presidential term limits.
Opponents of my position of reducing presidential term limits from two
terms to one term, I’m sure, put forth some of the following arguments, among
others. Reducing them would cause
American presidents to do even less noble work.
Why would they bother to do their job to the best of their abilities?
After all, there’s won’t be a reelection for them under my one-term
scenario. This is a far too
negative, pessimistic point of view; one that reinforces the inherent need for a
reduction in presidential term limits rather than diminishes it.
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What’s
so bad about a strong, central government anyway, some good people may ask.
On the surface, nothing’s so bad.
Underneath it all, when everything’s stripped away, nothing could be
worse. There’s plenty of talk
going around this presidential race about ‘two Americas’ and ‘American
values’. Who wants two Americas
anyway? I’ll tell you who—the
same people who want a federal government with absolute power.
As for myself, I rather prefer one America; I want a federal government
with limited power, an American presidency with further reduced term limits.
Somewhere! along the way in the course of American history we’ve lost
sight of an American value. We’re in control of the American government; the
American government isn’t in control of us.
The White House is our place, the people’s White House.
Now’s the right time for us to take it back; in fact, the time’s
never been more right. Let’s take
it back before it takes the Founding Fathers’ free America away and takes our
civil liberties away with it.
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