I watched Watchmen last week and the movie made the point that the 22nd Amendment had been repealed in order for Nixon to still be in office in the eighties. But as I recall, this point was never explictly mentioned in the comic book. We were just told Nixon was still President.
I wonder if Alan Moore figured it wasn’t a detail worth mentioning or if it was a detail he was unaware of. Moore, after all, is English and there’s no reason for him to be aware of the details of the United States Constitution. A lot of non-Americans are probably just aware that Franklin Roosevelt was elected four times and assume it’s still possible.
So did Moore ever mention this issue? And for that matter, how many non-Americans here are aware that the American Presidency now has term limits?
I’m pretty sure there was a passing reference - Moore does his research. Unfortunately, I don’t have my copy on me, but both the annotated Watchmen (see here - page 8, para. 11)and the Wiki mention it, and they are both dealing with the book character, not the movie, in those links.
I’m English and in my late 20’s and I knew about the 2 term limit for presidents before I read Watchmen. Partly because the USA’s system of always knowing when the next election will be is very different from our general elections.
I’ll admit I don’t have a copy of Watchmen in front of me. But I recall commenting on this point when I first read it back in 1986 so I was pretty sure the repeal of the 22nd Amendment wasn’t mentioned. However I could be wrong - if anyone has a copy handy please check and let me know where it was referenced.
I also think the 22nd itself was less known back in 1985-1986. Since then three Presidents have been prohibited from running for a third term due to it but back in the mid-eighties the only time it would have been an issue was 1960. (And then only for twenty minutes.)
I don’t remember a reference to the amendment in the book. But I always thought the implication was that, after the U.S. won the Vietnam War with Dr. Manhattan’s aid, Nixon was so popular that his supporters were able to get the amendment repealed. There was no Watergate scandal since The Comedian murdered Woodward and Bernstein, so with the U.S. firmly ahead in the Cold War, without Vietnam as a quagmire and no Watergate, it’s more or less logical in that fictional world. Maybe I’m giving Moore too much credit but that’s how I thought we were supposed to take it.
I haven’t read the comic, only seen the movie, but there was one detail that made me scratch my head a bit. IIRC, the movie takes place in the 80’s, but don’t they say that Nixon was just elected to his third term? It seems to me that by that point he should have been in at least his fourth term. A third Nixon term would have ended in 1980. Am I remembering that detail correctly?
I don’t remember a specific reference to a third term in the movie, although some of the publicity materials mentioned it - incorrectly, as you say. Nixon was first elected in 1968 and reelected in 1972 in WatchmenWorld and our own, and then reelected in 1976, 1980 and 1984 in WW. Hopefully President Redford would oust him in 1988 (or Reagan would, as mentioned in the movie, although he’d be far too old to be running for his first term then, IMHO).
Which always seemed odd to me, since stuff like that is almost always written to exclude the present officeholders; Truman could have run for a third term.
But if Nixon wants to run for a third term, and he’s the one writing the amendment, he’d specifically include the current officeholder. It’s just habit that stuff like that excludes the present officeholder, since normally it’s a limitation or restriction on him, rather than an expansion of powers.
Not always, though - the Twentieth Amendment cut short the terms of all the Congress and President/Vice-President at the time it came into force:
So for example, John Nance Garner served two full terms as Vice-President, but those two full terms didn’t amount to eight full years. He served from March 4, 1933 – January 20, 1941. Similar for all the members of Congress at the time the amendment came into force in 1933.
Actually, a simple “The Twenty Second article of Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed” would seem to be all you need - if that’s ratified while the current President is still in office, what would stop him from running for a 3rd term?
You wouldn’t want to do that because the 22nd amendment did more than term limits. The other stuff, like starting in January instead of March, is still a good idea.