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.
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.
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.