Posted on 02/28/2026 9:06:11 AM PST by Starman417
Our Founding Fathers were geniuses. They were far from perfect, but they were generally virtuous men, and they gifted us with a constitution far superior to anything that had ever been written. The document they wrote was imperfect, as all things that men create are, but it was extraordinary nonetheless – even with the 3/5 Compromise.
They gave us a system with a separation of powers, both within the federal government and between the federal and state governments. The Bill of Rights, which was basically the quid pro quo agreed to for ratification, extended that distribution of powers by recognizing that some rights belonged to the citizens and were largely beyond the power of government to impeach upon.
In hindsight however, the Founding Fathers made one fatal error, and we’re seeing it play out right in front of us today. And it’s somewhat curious that they made it…
James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, read widely in preparation for writing it. He read the writings of Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke and Montesquieu. He looked at the Constitutions of the various American states. And he studied governments throughout history such as the Dutch Republic, the Achaean League and of course, as practically all of the Founders did, the Roman Republic.
And this is what puzzles me. A critical element of the success of the Roman Republic was term limits, which were adopted for the specific purpose of preventing an individual from accumulating too much power and leading to a new monarchy. Magistrates, from Quaestors (the entry level bureaucrat workhorses) to Consuls (highest ordinary office; supreme executive/military authority) whose terms ran 1 year each, were generally forbidden from being reelected to the same office for a decade. This ensured that the power remained with the office itself rather than the individual.
With very few exceptions – largely dictatorships, an office rarely called upon and usually for military emergencies – this system of checks allowed the Roman Republic to survive for half a millennium (509 – 27 BC). What’s more, it was when these limits started to be ignored, first with the Gracchi Brothers and then Marius & Sulla, that the precipitous collapse of the Republic began. Of course the Gracchi Brothers in particular were responding to a Senate that was intransigent about sharing power – and wealth – with the rest of Italy. (The Senate was largely hereditary and made up of the oldest families and richest men in Rome.)
It’s curious, knowing that Madison and the Founding Fathers were well aware of this history, that they didn’t feel the need to include term limits in our Constitution, particularly as they had included them in the Articles of Confederation.
There are of course reasons for that. Our Founding Fathers never imagined Congress would be a full-time endeavor. It was a part time job, usually meeting maybe 6 months a year as travel was slow and most congressmen had farms or law practices or businesses that needed to be attended to back home. What’s more, initially there was not a great deal for the federal government to do. Indeed, state governments, particularly Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York were far more compelling destinations for powerful men than Washington. Demonstrating this, John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court stepped down to become Governor of New York, and when later President Adams reappointed him and the Senate confirmed him, he declined, citing the court’s lack of "the energy, weight and dignity which are essential to its affording due support to the national government."
At the end of the day, these combined to suggest to a majority of the delegates that term limits would be unnecessary and overly restrictive.
Sadly, that oversight is today starting to hemorrhage and the Republic’s future is at stake.
From Georgia to Arizona to Minnesota, Americans are watching in real time as revelations about the coup d'état in 2020 finally see the light of day. Suddenly we’re seeing massive amounts of proof that that thing that Democrats warned about for years before the 2020 election, then swore was impossible after it, happened regularly. Across the country and always in one direction.
Americans see this. And want to fix it, or at least 85% of the population does. But they can’t.
Why? Because we have a handful of GOP senators who simply don’t care and there is little Americans can do about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
What we need is to force elected leaders to live (full time) in the voting district from where they were elected.
No 2nd houses. No living in apartments in DC. I’m talking about basically making elected as a term of confinement.
Right now elected leaders socialize with each other. Politicians have politicians as neighbors; politicians should have their voters as their neighbors. They should shop and socialize among the very people they claim to represent.
If a politician votes for legislation that harms their own voters, those same politicians should live in the hell they created
Concentrated power is dangerous... spreading out politicians helps limit group think. AND it means lobbyist would have to meet in hundreds of different locations instead of one central area.
We have the technology to make voting and debate remote. We don’t need DC anymore.
I think their primary fatal mistake was not adddressing the evils-of-slavery issue.
Term limits certainly is important, though.
The thinking was that the people would watch closer and limit the politicians at the ballot box. And then the same politicians passed the 17th Amendment.
The Constitution does nothing by itself. The electorate si the ultimate enforcer of the Constitution. If the elcetorate constantlty allows the Constitution to be voided by the government it deserves the consequences of it’s actions or inactions.
“A republic, if you can keep it.” - Ben Franklin
Who do you think was teaching kids in the late 1700s in America?
The Gospel truth...
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