Hello all!
I am blogging to take a break from working on my pesky thesis introduction. Now, just to reassure some of you: yes, I love my topic. It is difficult enough, however, to write a one paragraph introduction to a 8-10 page paper, much less an 8-10 page introduction for a 50 page paper. Anyway, on to the point of this post.
Elections. That wonderful democratic procedure which we adore in this country. We love electing people. We love complaining about election fraud. We love complaining about the people we elected once they are securely in office. However, once you start elections, you fall pray to If-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie Syndrome. A.k.a. If you give someone an office, they will want to be reelected (now, this is not always true, just as I'm sure not every mouse wants a glass of milk with his cookie...). Which is why I would like to tell you a little story about term limits:
Once upon a time, there lived a great and glorious man named George Washington. This brilliant general led our country through the Revolution and then admirably steered its course for years to come as its President. When just a lad, he cut down a cherry tree, but, since he could not tell a lie...Nope. Just kidding, I'm not Parson Weems or George Bancroft. Just an FYI, GW did not chop down that cherry tree. It just didn't happen. We do, however, have a few things to thank good old George for in terms of the presidency. First, because of George, we do not have a king. I'm not kidding. Washington was asked to be the king of the new United States. Thankfully, the man said no. Secondly, the two term presidency. George could have easily gotten elected to a third, or even fourth, term in office. After all, the country felt that it had a lot for which to be grateful and Washington had been doing a pretty good job. But, alas, Washington stepped down and created the precedent for two term presidencies.
Then, many, many years later (so many, in fact, that it was a different century), along came a man named Franklin Delano Roosevelt (for the sake of my typing speed, I will refer to him as FDR). FDR entered the White House at a time when the country was in sad shape. The Great Depression was in full swing and Herbert Hoover had done little to help it. But what truly differentiated FDR from his presidential predecessors? He was elected president four times. Yes, he knowingly broke the precedent laid down by none other than George Washington. What prevented FDR from being elected a fifth time? Only his death early in his fourth term (an event the tragic repercussions of which I will save for a future post). FDR's political opponents were so pissed off that, when they got the chance, they passed a law which capped the presidency at ten years or two terms. Naturally, this would come back to bite them in the butt later on, but that's beside the point.
The moral of the story is that we now have legally mandated term limits on the Presidency. Now at this point, you are probably wondering why I told you all of this (or you are still wondering who Weems and Bancroft are. Maybe you are still recovering from the disillusionment over the cherry tree. I guess I don't really know). Well, there are two reasons.
1) George W. Bush. I don't think I have ever heard so much excitement over a President's un-reelectability (yes, I did just make that word up) due to term limits. Trust me, people are psyched. I'm sure some of you who are reading this are probably doing a happy dance that Bush cannot get reelected. Personally, I would like to think that if a president had screwed up enough that people were this excited to get rid of him that he would not get elected again, term limits or no. However, I will turn your attention to a British newspaper headline when Bush last got elected: "How Can 59,000,000 People Be So Dumb?" Not that I'm saying Americans are stupid. I'm just repeating the British (and we all know what they think of us, those poncy tossers).
2) Spencer Dove. Non WaC attenders will most likely have no idea who this is. And that's fine. Like most other schools in the country, WaC is a democratic sheep and, as such, we dutifully hold elections every year for positions in the SGA (Student Government Association). These elections have never been quite as controversial as they were this year. The president of the SGA for this past year was Spencer Dove, a junior and ex-president of the Class of 2009. When he ran for SGA office last year, he promised that he would not seek reelection. Allow me to say that this was a poor move on his part. Promises not to seek reelection do not end well. Teddy Roosevelt made that promise at the beginning of his second term as President, which created problems with getting anything done and prevented him from ever successfully obtaining a third term.
Anyway, back to WaC. Spencer got elected and served as SGA pres. for the 2007-2008 school year. About a month ago, it's election time again and, who's running? Spencer Dove. This ticked a lot of people off. His opponent's platform rested on her belief in upholding the tradition of a one term junior as SGA president. Well, Spencer won reelection and we have precedent breaking second term senior as our president for next year. This was such a major event that it spawned an article in The Cherry Tree (the April Fool's edition of The Elm) as well as an actual article in The Elm. For those interested, you can find The Elm article here: Dove Wins Second Term. I can only hope that my classmates will eventually take as much interest in state and government politics as they did in school politics.
That is my story on term limits. I hope you all enjoyed reading it. I know I enjoyed writing it. I cannot guarantee that I will post again before the end of the semester. There are, at present, three long papers and two short papers between me and going home. As soon as my Method paper (a.k.a thesis intro) is in, however, I will feel much better.
This is Brenna, signing off.
Then, many, many years later (so many, in fact, that it was a different century), along came a man named Franklin Delano Roosevelt (for the sake of my typing speed, I will refer to him as FDR). FDR entered the White House at a time when the country was in sad shape. The Great Depression was in full swing and Herbert Hoover had done little to help it. But what truly differentiated FDR from his presidential predecessors? He was elected president four times. Yes, he knowingly broke the precedent laid down by none other than George Washington. What prevented FDR from being elected a fifth time? Only his death early in his fourth term (an event the tragic repercussions of which I will save for a future post). FDR's political opponents were so pissed off that, when they got the chance, they passed a law which capped the presidency at ten years or two terms. Naturally, this would come back to bite them in the butt later on, but that's beside the point.
The moral of the story is that we now have legally mandated term limits on the Presidency. Now at this point, you are probably wondering why I told you all of this (or you are still wondering who Weems and Bancroft are. Maybe you are still recovering from the disillusionment over the cherry tree. I guess I don't really know). Well, there are two reasons.
1) George W. Bush. I don't think I have ever heard so much excitement over a President's un-reelectability (yes, I did just make that word up) due to term limits. Trust me, people are psyched. I'm sure some of you who are reading this are probably doing a happy dance that Bush cannot get reelected. Personally, I would like to think that if a president had screwed up enough that people were this excited to get rid of him that he would not get elected again, term limits or no. However, I will turn your attention to a British newspaper headline when Bush last got elected: "How Can 59,000,000 People Be So Dumb?" Not that I'm saying Americans are stupid. I'm just repeating the British (and we all know what they think of us, those poncy tossers).
2) Spencer Dove. Non WaC attenders will most likely have no idea who this is. And that's fine. Like most other schools in the country, WaC is a democratic sheep and, as such, we dutifully hold elections every year for positions in the SGA (Student Government Association). These elections have never been quite as controversial as they were this year. The president of the SGA for this past year was Spencer Dove, a junior and ex-president of the Class of 2009. When he ran for SGA office last year, he promised that he would not seek reelection. Allow me to say that this was a poor move on his part. Promises not to seek reelection do not end well. Teddy Roosevelt made that promise at the beginning of his second term as President, which created problems with getting anything done and prevented him from ever successfully obtaining a third term.
Anyway, back to WaC. Spencer got elected and served as SGA pres. for the 2007-2008 school year. About a month ago, it's election time again and, who's running? Spencer Dove. This ticked a lot of people off. His opponent's platform rested on her belief in upholding the tradition of a one term junior as SGA president. Well, Spencer won reelection and we have precedent breaking second term senior as our president for next year. This was such a major event that it spawned an article in The Cherry Tree (the April Fool's edition of The Elm) as well as an actual article in The Elm. For those interested, you can find The Elm article here: Dove Wins Second Term. I can only hope that my classmates will eventually take as much interest in state and government politics as they did in school politics.
That is my story on term limits. I hope you all enjoyed reading it. I know I enjoyed writing it. I cannot guarantee that I will post again before the end of the semester. There are, at present, three long papers and two short papers between me and going home. As soon as my Method paper (a.k.a thesis intro) is in, however, I will feel much better.
This is Brenna, signing off.
