History Exposes the Hypocrisy of Career Politicians

Our Nation’s 32nd president, Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) was elected 4 times and served 3 full terms. FDR died in 1945 while serving his fourth consecutive term. Only after FDR’s death, did our nation’s legislators acknowledge the dangers of relying exclusively on elections to limit power. In 1947, after FDR’s death but before his would-be 4th term expired, a Resolution for the 22nd Amendment was passed by legislators. By 1951, the Resolution was ratified (in favor of) by 41 states, including Texas. The 22nd Amendment limits a President to two terms. The hypocrisy of the US Legislators of the day was that they didn’t impose any form of term limits on themselves. With only a few more words in the same Resolution, we would have Term Limits for US legislators today. 

Exposing Career Politicians in Texas Today

In 2013 (83R), Texas legislators opposed HJR42/SJR13 supporting Term-Limits for Texas Legislators. Even though it contained good ideas, clear language, and more than fair concessions, the arguments show it was voted down based on principle and therefore never made it to Texas voters to decide.

Moving forward in time; despite Texas Legislators being opposed in 2013 to term-limits for Texas Legislators; in 2017 (85R) Texas Legislators overwhelmingly supported and passed a multi-subject “Resolution” (HJR39/SJR2) to call for a “Convention of States” to vote on term-limits for US Legislators. The hypocrisy comes as Term-Limit Resolutions for Texas Legislators introduced since 2013, Texas legislative session in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021, all have failed to leave the Texas State Affairs Committees. 

Term-Limits and the Integrity of Elections

Elections and term limits are two different things. If that were not true then there would not be a 22nd Amendment and Texas would not have passed the 2017 HJR39/SJR2 Joint Resolution. Career Politicians start the next election process with existing campaign funds, an existing campaign committee, a recognized name, and experience in campaigning for office. Those advantages create an imbalance in competition, discourages competition, and are generally dangerous to the democratic process and democracy.

Those that will Oppose Term-Limits

No doubt there will be opposition, mostly (not exclusively) by those that benefit from division and career politicians. Those that want to maintain the imbalances will work against this idea and any that promote it. They will cite that term limits circumvent elections that were created by our founding fathers. They will use their platform to downplay and spin the subject matter. But please remember that elected officeholders and career politicians have the exclusive power to allow or prevent “term limits” from being voted on by Texas voters. Their argument is exclusive to convince you that voters shouldn’t have that choice.