Abstract
The widespread view of the relationship between George Washington and the American custom of limited presidential service is misconceived. Conventional popular and scholarly accounts of the “two-term tradition” confuse both Washington’s position on presidential term limits and the historical contours of this custom. The American convention limiting the number of terms a president could serve emerged less from Washington’s views about political service than from deep-seated anxieties about centralized governing power (and specifically executive power). These concerns, along with an enduring American ambivalence about public service (reflected in Washington’s retirement), continue to shape the character of both our political life and public discourse.
Sep. 2001
Fancy that.
Isn’t the two-term thing something they made up so that someone like FDR couldn’t take power again? Not that there’s been a US president even as good as him since then, and it’s not as if the US Congress is more or less beholden to bourgeois interests than the presidents. While I don’t want to call this investigation a complete waste of time, it’s certainly not a particularly worthwhile endeavour.
Edit: I didn’t check what the community was before looking at the post and commenting, if you don’t think this comment adds anything or find it hostile feel free to remove. Faster than asking me to delete, I don’t get notifications.
