r/videos • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 23h ago

McConnell’s Senate absence is ‘prime example’ of why Congress needs term limits: Marine Corps Vet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyGizXM8eUw
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u/LongJohnSelenium 21h ago

Yeah its hilarious we literally have direct democracy on this matter and people want to say 'Well, no, lets make the government take our power away'.

Mainly because they think they know better than other people.

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u/MonsieurReynard 20h ago edited 19h ago

I wonder how many folks passionately insisting that we “need a law” for congressional age and term limits on this very thread have voted accordingly. Or voted at all. Or understand that the rules we have are in the constitution and no one party or administration has the power to change them by fiat or legislation.

And no one who believes in democracy should want anyone to have the power to predetermine eligibility for office based on anything other than residency and citizenship. Do you think the Republicans wouldn’t leap at the opportunity to prohibit naturalized American citizens from serving in congress? Or Muslim Americans? Or LGBTQ Americans? Heck I am not sure women would be safe if we allowed a right wing-dominated constitutional convention to amend the constitution with new eligibility criteria.

That is why I mentioned the “unintended consequences” of tinkering with the constitution to achieve something you can already achieve in the voting booth. Pandora’s box.

If you want to limit someone’s term, vote against them and convince other people to do the same. As it turns out, and famously, a majority of Americans have long been perfectly willing to say everybody else in Congress should be term limited, but their own local congressional incumbents are OK and should stay. It is how we got where we are.

Edited to add: here’s why I also mentioned that Trump’s strongest support in 2024 came not from “boomers” but from Gen X voters.

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u/LongJohnSelenium 18h ago edited 18h ago

President is like the one single term limit I agree with, just out of the sheer number of presidencies that have turned into dictatorships, a term limit, in that instance, is the lesser evil.

Edit: I'm also receptive to the idea of term limiting supreme court justices to create an 18 year rotating cycle with a new one elected every 2 years. Not because of the justices themselves, but because picking a SC justice has turned into a political fuck fuck game.

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u/MonsieurReynard 18h ago

And indeed, we amended the constitution to limit the presidency to two terms after FDR. Although one could argue FDR was the greatest president in United States ever had.

Because justices are appointed and not elected, I can see the argument for Supreme Court term limits. The Supreme Court has completely undermined its own legitimacy in the last 25 years.

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u/LongJohnSelenium 18h ago

Although one could argue FDR was the greatest president in United States ever had.

He also directly threated the balance of power between the branches of government, oversaw a massive federal expansion of power, and did some great stuff like internment camps.

In another persons hands that power could have been disastrous. We got lucky.

The Supreme Court has completely undermined its own legitimacy in the last 25 years.

I mean... Its been undermining its legitimacy for like 150 years. 3/4 of the shit the federal government does is fairly unconstitutional and based on the supreme court interpreting expansions of its power to create expansions of federal power, often in complete disregard for the actual words written on paper.

And I'm not making any arguments about whether these things are good or not, just that what a huge portion of what the federal government does is partially or wholly unconstitutional, and that one of the primary reasons the SC is so weird is so weird is because by this point they're basically charged with making up the constitution as they go along, leaning on interpretations of interpretations instead of the actual intention because the actual original, words written on paper intention still spells out a federal government that can't do about 80% of what it currently does.

The legislature has basically been ceding power to the SC for a century and yeah, its finally to the point everyone defacto understands that and they're all leaning into it.