Reagan would have won until the Alzheimer’s kicked in. He wiped the floor with his democratic challengers.
As a democrat I can only imagine how much better our country would have been with a 3 or 4 term Clinton presidency.
Where in the world did you get the idea that Bubba and/or Barack are/were left of center?
ETA My apologies if I’ve misread you and you’re aware that neither of them is.
THIS!
Term limits on Congress. Max of 12 years, period, whether Senate, House or mixed. And no pensions. For that matter, let’s term limit the Federal Bench. Instead of serving for life, they get 10 years and then they are out.
That’s just not true. You really can’t think of any accomplishments that might take longer than 8 years to see through?
Nonsense. Running a superpower is no job for amateurs.
Perhaps I missed it, but Eisenhower certainly COULD have won again in 1960.
Yes I would consider both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama left of center and I have no desire to engage with you in an overly pendantic hijack of why they’re not. It’s irrelevant to the point I was making.
During the terms limits craze some years back I was of the opinion that there shouldn’t be term limits – if the people want to keep re-electing someone, let 'em – but there shouldn’t be any pensions for elected officials either. If someone wants to put in 30 years as senator or representative, he can but he’d better have been contributing to his 401k like the rest of us.
I believe the Founding Fathers saw elective office as a noblesse oblige sort of a deal. You’d serve a couple or few terms in service to your state or country then go back to being a shopkeeper or planter or whatever.
I’'ve been taught that, but if it’s true, that was a very different time in several relevant ways.
My personal philosophy: You can run as many times as you want, but never two consecutive terms. Everyone should spend at least one term back in the field to experience the real world.
Somebody want to explain this objection to “dynasties”, and how they can even exist with regular elections?
Yeah we never would have been able to keep the depression going that long without Roosevelt. Better keep electing that guy.
Putin, basically.
The issue with dynasties is that small, tight-knit groups can sometimes build up a powerbase that is extremely difficult to defeat politically, even if it’s not actually good for the nation at large. In addition, the creation of such dynasties has a bad habit of tending to undermine democratic/republican vitality in the long term, while actively and passively squashing or shoving aside any potential rivals (who may better represent the country’s identity, desires, or needs) before they can become political threats.
Even if not wielded maliciously (cue cynical response), I have real doubts political dynasties will ever end except in self-serving behavior.