Richard Fernandez of PJMedia on why we need to worry when our presidents and their appointees all come from Harvard and other “elite” institutions. They are poster children for term limits. Too smart for our good.
“America was founded on the notion that most politicians can only be expected to be ornery, low-down, crooks. Nobody in those days was fool enough to believe they could be Light-workers, Messiahs and create a world without guns. Thus in the Founder’s view the only way to guard against rogues was to ensure that government remained as small as possible relative to its essential jobs; to change those in office frequently and often, like we change underwear.
“The Founders saw roguery as the byproduct of high office. And so they wrote a constitution — you know, the document more than a hundred years old that nobody smart reads any more — to keep the weeds down. For they knew better than our modern enlighteneds that any politician sufficiently powerful to disarm the people is sufficiently powerful to sell missiles bought from Russia to Muslim rebels in Mindanao.
“Unless one remembers this there is no defense against crooks in high places.”
Which is why we need term limits and, to my mind, no more two-term presidents.
Via Instapundit.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Oh, yeah, we desperately need term limits. But we ain’t ever gonna get ’em. We desperately need tax reform. But we ain’t ever gonna get it, flat tax or fair tax, either one. And should we get some horrible Frankenstein of one or the other or both combined with the loopholes and phony deductions we now have, we will be sorry we ever let the pols give up the income tax.
It could be almost as bad as letting them run a new Constitutional Convention, or direct election of President. When we did popular election of senator, look at what we got.
Well, that’s my and Fernandez’s MLK moment: We have a dream. As for popular election of senators, I still like it because it gives a chance of getting someone not of the elite. OTOH, you do risk getting crooks like LBJ and Harry Reid.
Can’t go with you on this one. Term limits would be a curtailment of my right to vote for who I wanted to. I know all the arguments for limits and they have a lot of validity, but it’s still our responsibility to educate ourselves on the issues and candidates. The very nature of our government as instituted by the Constitution demands our constant attention and involvement. We’ve slacked off on that and are paying a price for it.
A whole generation has slacked off and the ones coming up to bat ain’t any better, far as I can see.
Golden words them in the headline. I would only add a corollary: “And for the same reason”.