Re: [OT] Trump's third term

On Mar 31, 2025 at 6:08:43 AM PDT, "Rhino" <no_offline_contact@example.com>
wrote:

On 2025-03-30 11:30 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

 Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

 2025-03-30 10:05 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

 Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

 

 I see that Trump has mused about running for a third term. This CBC
 article explains why that couldn't happen and suggests that this puts an
 end to the discussion.

 

 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-third-term-president-constitutional-1.7497480

 

 For some strange reason - ignorance, I expect - they complete ignore a
 perfectly legal way to get Trump a third term: amend the 22nd amendment
 to increase the number of terms or repeal that amendment altogether.

 

 If I remember correctly, he'd need to get the approval of 3/4 of the
 states and 2/3 of both chambers of Congress to agree and they'd only
 have a set number of years to do it but if Trump really is as popular as
 he thinks he is, that should be quite possible.

 

 The set number of years was a characteristic of specific amendments
 proposed in Congress but not others. It's not clear if that's
 constitutional.

 

 Fair enough. I was remembering the ERA which *almost* passed but fell
 slightly short. As I recall, they gave it an extra few years but it
 still fell short.

 
 ERA may have passed as additional state legislatures voted in favor
 after the expiration.
 

 Good luck to Trump on his quest to become dictator.

 

 Was FDR a dictator when he ran for his third and fourth terms?

 
 There are historians who have argued that FDR was part of the pre-WWII
 trend of countries that had been democracies turning toward autocracy.
 Also, FDR never told the voters that he was way too sick to be president
 when he ran for that fourth term.
 

Roosevelt running for a fourth term when he was at death's door was, of
course, morally wrong. So was Wilson failing to resign when he was
massively incapacitated for many months during WWI and simply let his
wife run things. Unfortunately, both acts were perfectly legal. Maybe
the laws - or even the Constitution - should be amended to force every
Presidential and VP candidate to pass a thorough medical (and mental)
exam before they can be put on a Presidential/VP ballot and also pass an
annual physical. That would have forced Wilson to resign in favour of
his VP and FDR could never have run for the fourth term (and maybe the
third if his condition was sufficiently obvious that early).

Or even one term, depending on what would be required to pass the medical
test. He was in a wheelchair, after all.