At times like these, it’s frankly tempting to ponder the necessity of the 22nd Amendment, the one that term limits the president. For example, would Barack Obama be a better advocate than Hillary Clinton for his third term? Would he be a better bet to prevent the existential national and global threat that is a Donald Trump presidency? Just askin’.
No, this isn’t post-FDR 1947. But who would have envisioned this?
We have term limits at the highest level for obvious reasons. But if you have a serious, participatory democracy, shouldn’t that be sufficient reason to trust the people to make the ultimate call–rather than rely on a candidate-eliminating amendment?
Or maybe the people can’t totally be trusted? Maybe the fact that Donald Trump has already gotten this far is a stark reminder of what can happen when we let our democratic guard down.