Hey Serrano! Don't Mess With the Twenty-Second Amendment

I knew that it was just a matter of time before the Democrats, with their new found "power", would begin their attempts to mess with the constitution. However, I just didn't think it would happen this soon, even before "The One" has been inaugurated.

The first move comes against the twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

The twenty-second Amendment was ratified on February 27, 1951 and states:

22nd Amendment

1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President, when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

The history of the twenty-second Amendment, as found on U.S. Constitution Online, is:

"Since the presidency of George Washington, only one thing could be said to be totally consistent - that no President had the job for more than two full terms. Washington had been asked to run for a third term in 1796, but he made it quite clear that he had no intention of doing so; that an orderly transition of power was needed to set the Constitution in stone. And so it was for almost 150 years.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was first elected President in 1932, and re-elected in 1936. When it came time for the Democrats to nominate a candidate for the Presidency in 1940, two things had happened. First, the Republicans had made great gains in Congress in the 1938 elections. And Hitler happened. Europe was in the throes of a great war, with trouble in the Pacific, too. A change away from Roosevelt, who had led the nation through the Great Depression, did not seem wise. He was nominated for an unprecedented third term, and won. It was not a landslide victory, however, and it is debatable that FDR would have had a third term had it not been for the war. When 1944 rolled around, changing leaders in the middle of World War II, which the United States was now fully engaged in, also seemed unwise, and FDR ran for and was elected to, a fourth term.

His life was nearly over, however, and his Vice President, Harry Truman, became President upon FDR's death less than 100 days after his inauguration. Though FDR's leadership was seen by many as a key reason that the U.S. came out of WWII victorious, the Congress was determined, once the war ended, to ensure that Washington's self-imposed two-term limit become the law of the land. Specifically excepting Truman from its provisions, the 22nd Amendment passed Congress on March 21, 1947. After Truman won a second term in 1948, it was ratified on February 27, 1951 (1,439 days). Truman could have run for a third term, but bowed out early before campaigning began."

Now the twenty-second Amendment and the U.S. Constitution is being threatened, which is sure to be only the first of many Constitutional threats we will see in the coming months and years.

Representative Jose Serrano, a Democrat from New York, is proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second amendment, thus removing the presidential term limits. H.J. Res. 5, which was introduced to the 111th Congress on January 6, 2009, states:

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

'Article---

`The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is repealed.'.

This is not the first time Jose Serrano has proposed this legislation. He unsuccessfully introduced legislation to repeal the twenty-second Amendment on six previous occasions:

1. H.J. Res. 19 to the 105th Congress on January 7, 1997 did not make it out of committee.
2. H.J. Res. 17 to the 106th Congress on January 6, 1999 did not make it out of committee.
3. H.J. Res. 4 to the 107th Congress on January 3, 2001 did not make it out of committee.
4. H.J. Res. 11 to the 108th Congress on January 7, 2003 did not make it out of committee.
5. H.J. Res. 9 to the 109th Congress on January 4, 2005 did not make it tout of committee.
6. H.J. Res. 8 to the 110th Congress on January 4, 2007 did not make it to committee.

He's nothing if not persistent. However, his first six attempts were basically doomed from the outset.

1. When H.J. Res. 19 was introduced to the 105th Congress, he had to deal with a Republican controlled Congress (55-45) who would have never passed legislation that would have allowed Bill Clinton to serve more than two terms.
2. When H.J. Res. 17 was introduced to the 106th Congress, he once again had to deal with a Republican controlled Congress (55-45) who would have never passed legislation that would have allowed Bill Clinton to serve more than two terms.
3. When H.J. Res. 4 was introduced to the 107th Congress, he had to deal with an incoming Republican president and an evenly split Congress (50-50), with Democrats who would have never passed legislation that allow a Republican president to serve more than two terms.
   
4. When H.J. Res. 11 was introduced to the 108th Congress, he once again had to deal with a Republican president and a Republican controlled Congress (51-48-1). There were enough Democrats to make sure no legislation was ever passed that would allow George W. Bush to serve more than two terms.
   
5. When H.J. Res. 9 was introduced to the 109th Congress, he was faced with an unpopular Republican president, a Republican controlled Congress (55-44-1) and enough Democrats to make sure no legislation was ever passed that would allow George W. Bush to serve more than two terms.
6. When H.J. Res. 8 was introduced to the 110th Congress, he was still faced with an unpopular Republican president. However, this time he had a Democrat controlled Congress (49-2-49, with the Independents voting with Democrats), which would, once again, make sure no legislation was ever passed that would allow George W. Bush to serve more than two terms.

You know what they say, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." His persistence may finally payoff for him and his Democrat cronies. This time he may finally have the environment he needs to get his legislation passed in Congress.

1. He has an incoming Democrat president who has made it clear how he feels about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
2. He has a Democrat controlled Congress (56-2-41, with 1 vacancy and the Independents who vote with the Democrats), which wants nothing more than to stick it to the Republican party and make sure they are neutralized and irrelevant for years to come, as well as to make sure their guy and themselves remain in power for as long as possible.
3. There might be just enough Republicans with no backbone (as we keep seeing day in and day out) that will want to look conciliatory or centrist and decide to vote for the proposal, thus giving him a two-thirds majority needed to pass both houses of Congress.
   

Our only hope might lie with the states, if by any chance it does happen to pass both houses of Congress. It might be a lot harder to get three-quarters of the states to ratify the Amendment, where currently only twenty-nine states are run by Democrat governors.

What does this mean for you and me, if this Amendment should happen to be repealed? Can you say dictatorship? How would you like to lead, or should I say controlled, by someone like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro, or worse?

Some people might say, "What's the big deal? It will still be in the hands of the people to vote in a new president if they don't like the one in office."

My answer to that is, "How many Congressmen and women do you know who get voted back into office term after term after term, not because they have accomplished anything, but because of name recognition or because they have more money to spend than their opponent?"

Too many people are unwilling to go with the unknown, no matter how bad the known is. The office of president would be no different. It is a wonderful thing that we are guaranteed to have new blood and new ideas in the White House every eight years....even when we may not agree with those new ideas. If only it were the same for the rest of our government.

Every red-blooded, freedom loving American needs to stand shoulder to shoulder on this and every other threat to our Constitution. We need to make sure that our Constitution is preserved and that our rights are not trampled on. Let's make our voices heard loud and clear and make sure Representative Serrano's seventh attempt to thwart the twenty-second Amendment is once again defeated.