What do term limits have to do with your obituary?
Don't be alarmed. This has nothing to do with any bizarre Halloween tales or being unnecessarily morbid.
But do you ever think about what your legacy will be -- or what it can be?
If you are working with us to call an Article V convention that will address and discuss term limits for federal officials, you are -- whether you realize it or not -- creating a legacy that will see you counted as an American patriot.
Speaking of patriots...
In addition to the absence of a declaration of rights in the original Constitution, Thomas Jefferson told James Madison “The second feature I dislike, and greatly dislike, is the abandonment in every instance of the necessity of rotation in office…”
The quest to call an Article V convention to limit the power of the federal government can rectify that error.
Such a feature was not included in the Constitution because there was once a time when tradition was observed.
There was once a time when elected officials followed the example of George Washington – who followed the example of the Roman statesman Cincinnatus returning to his plow – and retired to their private lives after a reasonable amount of time in public office.
That tradition has been obliterated. Part of your legacy can be to restore it in the form of term limits.
It is right to ask whether we have been well-served by a Congress and bureaucracy full of instantly recognizable names and faces who have been in the news for decades and enjoy all of the advantages of incumbency and revolving Cabinet and executive branch positions.
Has our debt been eased by these people? Have they made it easier to establish a small business or buy a home in spite of what is promised every election cycle? Have they defended and advanced the basic freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights?
Have they built upon a solid foundation or widened its cracks?
Think of how different our government might look today had even the most modest term limits been in place: Joe Biden out of Congress in the 1990s; Mitch McConnell returned to his old Kentucky home in the early part of this century; Chuck Schumer back to Brooklyn; Nancy Pelosi unlikely to have ever been third in line for the presidency, etc., etc.
We must do away with the mindset that there are only an elite few in a republic of nearly 350 million people who are skilled enough to serve in Congress. Should we expend energy to drag the likes of Lindsey Graham across the finish line every six years in exchange for endless wars and bills like his Tire Efficiency, Safety, and Registry Act of 2015? Or should we work to make Graham and the rest serve for a time and then return to their states and communities and find something else to do?
Think of all that. Then think about what can be said of you when you work to call an Article V convention that will discuss and propose term limits:
You were part of a movement that helped bring balance and sanity to Washington, D.C.
You were vital in returning our federal government to the hands of the people through citizen-legislators who rotate through office, not professional careerists who comb the federal treasury for their own gain and amusement.
You helped set the republic on a necessary course correction. You put a significant check on ambition that the founders knew would plague a governing class and, thus, a republic.
You lived up to your responsibilities in the life of the nation as an engaged citizen. You were unwilling to adopt the cynical attitude of “Ah, whaddayah gonna do about it?”
Rather than doing nothing about it or being an obstructionist, you entered the lists.
You were a freedom fighter as the founders understood it – fighting to keep the republic as per Benjamin Franklin’s injunction which, mythical or not, expresses the requirement of every American citizen.
That is a legacy of which you and your descendants can be proud, and one for which you will be properly recognized and heralded.
If you haven't already, join the fight for term limits, reining in the overreach of the federal government, and cementing your legacy as an American patriot by signing the petition below:
