Over at The Other McCain, my very good Friend In The Ether Smitty makes a good case for Term Limits.
Do take the time to click here and read it. A highlight:
…There is no excuse for our system of government to overgrow itself to the point that it takes a professional cadre with a lifetime of knowing where the bodies are buried in order to operate the thing. No. We keep it simple, and we swap out the people in charge at a reasonable frequency so that the playing field stays level.
In the past I have argued against term limits because I believe we should be able to keep someone in office as long as we want if he is doing a great job [see: the case of Representative John Quincy Adams]. Of course, for this to work, we have to conduct ourselves like adults.
However, we, the Sovereign People, have [of our own Free Will - no
one forced us to] become corrupted in our thinking and willingly reverted to mewing and puking infants in the arms of nurse government.
Since we can no longer be trusted to exercise Virtue, we must be treated like the juveniles we are, so I am now in favor of Term Limits. Heck, I’d consider making it so that someone who serves the Limit is barred from ever serving in the same branch again.
SIDENOTE1: Our current state makes us vulnerable to the charms of a Caesar, which is exactly what we have gotten.
SIDENOTE2: Smitty wrote:
…but I predict that the 22nd Amendment is expanded upon to cover Congress, and perhaps even the SCOTUS, in the next couple of decades.
Trouble is: we don’t have decades.
The rubber has, indeed, met the road. This is the moment where the fate of The American Experiment hangs in the balance. Will we choose Empire or Republic?
SIDENOTE3: Smitty quotes from and links to an interesting column by Glenn Reynolds [aka: @Instapundit]. A highlight:
What’s next? In my constitutional law class the other day, most of my students took the position that they would be unlikely to see a Constitutional Convention in their lifetimes. I’m not so sure. Last year I spoke at a Harvard Law School conference on holding a new Constitutional Convention, one which had participants from all sorts of ideological positions ranging from the Tea Party to the Occupy Wall Street movement. (People got along surprisingly well.)
In the American system, a Constitutional Convention — which has never been held since the Constitution was adopted — is the last stop before revolution. It was intended as a way for the people to end-run the political establishment; if enough states request a convention, Congress has no choice but to call it, and the resulting proposals go straight to the states for ratification, bypassing Congress. It’s a way to make drastic changes when the political class has blocked smaller ones.
Are we there yet? I don’t think so. But we’re getting closer all the time. Political class, take note.
Considering the the degraded state of The American Mind in general, I would fear a Constitutional Convention. I would fear the influence the Left In America and the Quislings on the Right would have in such a venue. You know that many states would send representatives to such a Convention who would be looking to maintain the privileges of the Ruling Class.
Once again, as with all of our problems, we see the main problem: we have all been corrupted by Leftist Thinking. It has wormed it’s way into the hearts and minds of everyone to one degree or another. It has weakened us spiritually. It has made the normal seem perverse. It has detached us from Virtue.
Could This Be One Explanation?
For there is but one essential justice which cements society, and one law which establishes this justice. This law is right reason, which is the true rule of all commandments and prohibitions. Whoever neglects this law, whether written or unwritten, is necessarily unjust and wicked.
—Cicero, On The Laws, Book I, Chapter XV
