Congress passed legislation in 1947 to amend the Constitution to limit Presidents to two terms in office. In that same year, Congress passed the National Security Act, which created the CIA and set into motion the process of creating a permanent bureaucracy that many today call the Deep State.

The 22nd Amendment was a reaction to the fact that Franklin Roosevelt had just been reelected to an unprecedented fourth term in office. The Red Scare had seized the minds of many Americans, and the infamous McCarthyism was soon to follow, frightening people that there was a commie under every bed.

In this context, the 22nd Amendment was sold by claiming it would prevent “dictatorship” by an overly-popular President.

What dictatorship? FDR won democratic, fair, and open elections. He was popular because his economic policies pulled the USA out of the Great Depression and led us to victory in WWII. The United States astonished the world with our ability to produce industrial goods, and we became the most powerful economy in the world.

What’s so bad about that? Do you think we should have an amendment to the Constitution to prevent something like that from ever happening again?

A Terrible Mistake