PC: Annother FDR with no 22nd amendment

Anchises

Banned
In Germany 16 years or four terms seem to be a magic number. We don't have a cultural or constitutional limits but in the fourth term things tend to go south for the ruling party. Kohl just made it that far because of reunification and Merkel is (barely) hanging on by a thread. People get fed up with a President/chancellor eventually. If he is in office for 16 years, you have a whole generation of young people who only know one person on the top, that is simply not sustainable.

In the U.S. I don't think four terms are realistic though. A two party system makes the ruling party more vulnerable to a changing public mood, without a coalition partner to absorb voter loss I don't think a fourth term is likely for any modern President.
 
One can imagine a scandal-free Nixon wishing to go on endlessly. Quite a few post-WWII presidents would have been ruled out from serving for more than two terms for health reasons - Eisenhower, JFK (had he lived), LBJ, Reagan and maybe even Clinton.
 
In Germany 16 years or four terms seem to be a magic number. We don't have a cultural or constitutional limits but in the fourth term things tend to go south for the ruling party. Kohl just made it that far because of reunification and Merkel is (barely) hanging on by a thread. People get fed up with a President/chancellor eventually. If he is in office for 16 years, you have a whole generation of young people who only know one person on the top, that is simply not sustainable.

In the U.S. I don't think four terms are realistic though. A two party system makes the ruling party more vulnerable to a changing public mood, without a coalition partner to absorb voter loss I don't think a fourth term is likely for any modern President.

If FDR had lived, there's no doubt that he'd seriously lose popularity during his fourth term due to the economy and massive strike wave. Not as unpopular as Truman, but as unpopular as Ike during the 1958 recession. Dems might keep the Senate in 1946, but the GOP takes the House and they block almost the entirety of FDR's domestic agenda.

One can imagine a scandal-free Nixon wishing to go on endlessly. Quite a few post-WWII presidents would have been ruled out from serving for more than two terms for health reasons - Eisenhower, JFK (had he lived), LBJ, Reagan and maybe even Clinton.

Nixon would probably lose in 1976 thanks to the bad economy. 1973-75 was the worst economy since the Great Depression at that time; it's hard to see how an incumbent can overcome the backlash against that.
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
Without the 22nd, Reagan would have been reelected in 1988 in a walk. 1992 is much less likely because of his dementia. This MIGHT butterfly Clinton out of the picture. If it didn't, Clinton could win at least in 2000 and likely 2004.

Nixon won in a walk in '72 because the Democrats ran a good man who had the national political instincts of a baby duck. In '76 or '80 he would have been facing Ted Kennedy. Kennedy would have kicked his ass.
 
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