Re: [Marxism] Follow-up on Chavez's "25-year term"

["Michael Hoover" <hooverm@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> jjack99645@xxxxxxxxx 05/09/06 5:00 PM >>>
Don't forget Franklin Roosevelt, who died while serving his fourth
consecutive term. This is total speculation, but I'd venture to guess
that
the motivation behind formalizing the two-term presidential limit came
from
conservatives who didn't want to give a future president time to carry
through any far-reaching social reforms like the New Deal. In any event,
we
still don't have term limits for the senate or the house, and one could
argue that it would be a good thing to get fossils like (my state's
favorite) Ted Stevens out of power.
<<<<<>>>>>

above point certainly has some merit, however, prez term limit idea was
neither new nor novel, in fact, there had been almost 300 term limit
amendment resolutions submitted to congress prior to the one that became
22nd amendment (only issue with more submitted resolutions has been
direct prez election)...

term limits resolution submitted to and passed on by congress in 1947
was made possible by republican control of both houses following 1946
elections, it was clearly intended to prevent another roosevelt,
republicans in the respective chambers unanimously voted yea, a majority
of democrats in both the house and senate voted nay, but dixiecrats
voted with the republicans to provide 2/3rds super-majority required by
constitution for amendment proposal (in other words, 22nd amendment,
like taft-hartley in the same year was product of 'conservative
coalition of republicans and dixiecrats)...

with exception of odd 27th amendment proposed by madison in 1789 as part
of bill of rights and ratified in 1992 (amendment addresses
congressional pay raises, prohibiting them from taking effect until
after the next election), ratification of #22 took longer than any
other, almost 4 years, ratification coming in 1951...

ratification process turned with election results - 50% of necessary 36
states (3/4ths of then 48 state u.s.) ratified in 1947 alone, but truman
remained in the white house and democrats resumed congressional majority
after 1948 elections and only 6 additional states had voted ratify
through 1950, then, 12 states did so in early 1951 almost as if they
were following republican upsurge shown in 1950 congressional
elections...

several related items:

1) george washington is credited with setting two-term tradition, but it
was jefferson who actually made practice a principle, washington split
after two terms because he didn't like that he was being criticized
constantly in the press...

2) democrats offered amendment proposal in 1947 that would have limited
terms of both presidents and congressional members, they weren't really
in favor of it, they hoped that it might block republicans from pursing
only prez limits, strategy didn't work...

3) ronald reagan was screen actors guild president at the time that prez
term limit amendment was proposed and under ratification, he publicly
endorsed its adoption (if memory serves, he either testified before
congress or the california assemmbly, maybe both),
however, during his second termas u.s. prez, ronnie's friends explored
possibility of repealing 22nd amendment so that he could run for third
term, he publicly endorsed this effort as well...

4) there are currently 2 submitted resolutions - one from a republican
and one from a democrat - in the house calling for repeal of #22...   mh



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