Repeal the 22nd Amendment?

That Amendment limits a President to two terms.  Now, some Representative from New York has proposed a bill to repeal that.

Not surprisingly, it’s a Democrat.  And it’s not something new – the same guy has been proposing the same bill about every two years since the late 1990s.

In the past, it’s gone nowhere.  The odds of it getting all the way through the legislative process successfully would seem to be slim.

However, we need to remember that Obama has said he’d like to have a third term.  He believes he should have a third term.  A lot of Democrats apparently concur. 

There’s just that pesky, old-fashioned Constitution in the way, and we know the disdain some have for the Constitution these days.  You know the argument:  how the Constitution’s practically irrelevant today because it was drafted so long ago by a bunch of rich white guys who couldn’t foresee how the world would change.

As specious as that argument is, it still has a lot of traction, especially among the far left who prefer a nation of whims rather than a nation of laws.  They wrap themselves in the Constitution when it suits their needs, but attack the Constitution as hopelessly out of date and out of touch with today’s realities when it doesn’t.  

Well in this case, it’s not like the 22^nd Amendment dates back all that far.  It was only enacted after FDR was elected to four consecutive terms.   

And it was enacted for good reason.   After seeing how FDR used the power of incumbency, people realized that more than a couple of terms might open the door to an Imperial Presidency.  Or worse – a dictator for life.   

There’s no doubt that FDR was a gifted public speaker and communicator and well-loved by the masses in his time.  First elected during the Depression, he positioned himself as a champion of the little guy and the unions, always fighting against the greedy banks and rich capitalists.   

He was a master manipulator of the media of his time and the media loved him in return.  They also largely ignored anything negative about him.  He was their bigger-than-life hero.   

He helped create Social Security – which was a good, altruistic idea.  But he also made the use of massive government spending, soaring deficits to cover that spending, and ever expanding government bureaucracy a foundation of Democrat ideology for decades to come. 

Unfortunately, he also ran roughshod over the Constitution at times to achieve his goals.  His New Deal spawned a variety of work programs and agencies out of nowhere, and often with little regard to accountability, expense or even legality.  When many of those programs were subsequently struck down by the Supreme Court, he didn’t hesitate to criticize the Court publicly as “nine old men” and strong-arm them.  He even threatened to expand the Court by as many as six justices to try to get his way.    

And as to the claim that FDR’s leadership pulled us out of the Depression, well some now believe that many of his free-spending economic policies and big-government approaches may have actually extended the length of the Depression unnecessarily.   Eight years into FDR’s first two terms – and when all his New Deal programs were in full swing – unemployment was still at about 17% and we were even deeper in debt.  It was WWII that pulled us out and brought our economy back; not FDR’s WPA

Now as I write this, it occurs to me that this is sounding more than just a little familiar. 

Honestly, I wasn’t planning on tying Obama to FDR when I started drafting this.  I was just going to make the case for maintaining Presidential term limits at two terms.  But I realize that the similarity outlined above is inescapable.

Like FDR, Obama believes he is above the law.  He considers his re-election as confirmation of his authority to do whatever he wants.  The Constitution and the equal balance of power among the Congress, the Judiciary and the Executive branches be damned. 

He surrounds himself with allies who also believe the ends justify whatever means.  Nancy Pelosi – who famously said Congress had to pass ObamaCare to learn what was in it.  Geitner, who thinks simply minting a worthless trillion-dollar coin and depositing that in the Federal Reserve Bank, and then using that as collateral to print more money, is a perfectly acceptable way to avoid hitting the debt ceiling.    

If Obama can’t get his way through proper channels, he’ll simply sign an Executive Order and dare the other two branches to challenge it.  Or task one of his minions to find some dubious technicality he can exploit.  The trillion-dollar coin is just one of those.  He’s also exploring using an obscure clause in the Constitution to start making the case that he doesn’t need any Congressional approval to raise the debt limit unilaterally. 

He intimidated the Supreme Court into deciding that a key provision of his ACA was indeed a tax, and as such permissible, even when his own attorneys had argued that it wasn’t. 

He doesn’t really care how he wins, just that he wins. Like FDR. 

Also, like FDR, the media loves Obama and refuses to acknowledge any mistakes he’s made.  And he’s made a boat load.  His massive stimulus programs haven’t worked.  His bailouts to GM and Chrysler are largely smoke and mirrors.  His green energy projects have wasted untold dollars with little in return.  Unemployment remains high.  As much as he cooks the books and fudges the numbers to appear otherwise – with the media complicit in promoting this nonsense – the economy’s in shambles and practically nothing he’s done is turning it around. 

And now there’s talk of allowing him to run for a third term.  Honestly, that’s just delusional.  He didn’t deserve a second term, much less a third.

But with the media on his side, he probably thinks he has a shot.

The 22^nd Amendment is the only thing stopping him.  He and his supporters know there’s not much of a chance they can get that tossed out in time. 

So I’ll bet they are working on some way of getting around it.  Maybe have Michelle run.  Maybe run Biden as a figurehead.

Or maybe he'll just issue another Executive Order to ignore the 22nd Amendment. 

Trust me, they are trying to find some technicality as I write this.  It’s his style. 

He wants to be king with unlimited powers; he’s been acting like one for the past four years, and will for the coming four.  That’s more than enough.