Term Limits. What you should know.

    I was going through the mail a while back and came across a couple main-in ballots, as I corrected them I noticed a couple things about term limits, not knowing as much as I would like to about the subject I went out and educated myself, here is what I found.

            A term limit is basically exactly what it says; a limit on how many terms an elected official can serve before he/she is subject to re-election or resignation. Term limits are somewhat complex. A term limit can consist of two or more terms and each term is 4 years long in the case of the president or can extend to life terms in the case of Supreme Court justices. Terms are a number of years that an official can be in office, term limits, limit the number of terms a person can serve, thus limiting the amount of time the official is under the influence of power. A lot of limits huh?

            As the marvelous movie The Dark Night states; “You either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” which is true to this case. If you are in office to long with somebody else's power you are bound to abuse it sooner or later. Term limits are a level in the separation of powers which keeps our government from becoming corrupt.

Separation of power happens on 5 major levels; 1. Popular Sovereignty; basically this means that the people created the gov. so they can destroy it or rebuild it however they see fit. 2. Limited Government; this means that the actual government is divided into three parts Legislative (congress, senate and House of Representatives), Judicial (makes the laws) and Executive (which is the president and vp) 4. Federalism; is the government of the separate states. 5. Checks and Balances; this means that each branch of gov. has the power to override the others if they make a bad of stupid decision. It’s a lot of waffle but that is what makes our government tick.

            Term limits help officials from becoming corrupt with their borrowed power. Governments were instated among men to guarantee certain rights; life, liberty and property. To create these governments men give up some of their own power and give it to the government so they can create laws to ensure the public have their life, liberty and property. Term limits limit the amount of time officials are held subject to essentially more power than they can handle, thus prohibiting them from becoming tainted by prolonged exposure to said power.

            The term limit for president of the United States is 4 years. And the president can run for a second term of 4 more years. All in all one person can act as the president for 2 terms each consisting of 4 years per term. Term limits for representatives are different; a representative's term is 2 years, and there is no limit on how many terms you can serve as long as you are re-elected. A senator serves an 8 year long term and there is no limit on how many times he/she can be elected/re-elected. Supreme court justices serve for life. Sometimes a justice will die, in which case they have fulfilled their life term, and in other cases they will resign because their health is failing. When a justice does die or resign the president is the one who picks a new one.

            Term limits are very important to our version of democracy, because they are yet another level of the separation of powers that keep the balance. I would disagree with somebody who wants to abolish term limits I would not disagree however if somebody suggests that term limits are revised. Revision may be a healthy addition to the system seeing as times change, perhaps if term limits were looked at every 8 years or so we could adjust them to match whatever complications have come up. We should keep the term limits in place in no case should they be abolished. Term limits are part of the separation of powers, they keep our government in check and they help balance power by not letting only a few people have all the power all the time. Term limits insure a chance for other people to be in governmental positions, sort of like being on a sports team we have to have “fresh” legs to keep other people from becoming tired and making stupid decisions. If you want to read another view of term limits you can read about it at Term Limits Voter's Guide and you will see the author has a few good points but overall is wrong. If you agree, your just as stupid as he is. He says things like "tall people get elected, so vote for the short guy" he is an idiot who doesnt really know what he's talking about, and just has a little to much free time.

    I now know all I need to, to continue correcting. Until next time Jack Emmerson signing off.