WI A Six-year, single presidential term?

IOTL, the Democratic Party platform of 1912 called for a Presidential term of six years, and a nonrenewable one at that. Under President Wilson, the plan got pretty far in the legislature, but didn't end up making it out because the plan proposed would extend Wilson's term for two years without public consent.

Let's say they go about the plan differently, and an amendment is proposed along the lines of...

Amendment XVIII

Section 1. The term of the President shall be extended to six years in length.

Section 2. No person shall hold the office of President for more than one term.

Section 3. Should the President become incapacitated and the Vice President become President of the United States, he may run for a term of his own only if he serves less than three years of the incapacitated President's term.

Section 4. This Amendment will take effect at the time of the next Presidential election. The incumbent will be allowed to seek a term of his own.

So basically, Wilson finishes up his first term and is eligible to run for a six year term of his own in 1916. Does this change things up in the 1916 Presidential election? If not, does Wilson live to see the end of his second term? Who might be alternate Presidential candidates under the new electoral cycle (1916, 1922, 1928, 1934, 1940, 1946, 1952, 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000, 2006, 2012...)?
 
Here's an idea. JFK in '64, Rocky in '70, RFK in '76, Bush I in '82, Gary Hart in '88, Clinton '94, Bush II '00, Hillary '06. But this is the system they have in the Philippines under the 1987 Constitution. Only one president (Ramos) has served a single full term. Others served shorter (Estrada) or longer (Cory Aquino, Arroyo). Every president since 1992 has tried (and Arroyo's congressional allies still are trying) to scrap it at one point or another, which gives you an idea of how much bipartisan opposition there is.
 
It might be a good idea. It would let the president be a president instead of a candidate. It would make the candidates come out and say what they would do instead of just saying what is wrong. But to make it really stick, would to do what Texas did when they were a republic. Your President you serve your 6 years term.( Texas did two years) You can't run until you have sit out at least one term. Then you can run. No more term limits just a term waiting period. That would give americans the chance to see if the president did a good job with some time to look at it.
 
So basically, Wilson finishes up his first term and is eligible to run for a six year term of his own in 1916. Does this change things up in the 1916 Presidential election? If not, does Wilson live to see the end of his second term? Who might be alternate Presidential candidates under the new electoral cycle (1916, 1922, 1928, 1934, 1940, 1946, 1952, 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994, 2000, 2006, 2012...)?


Could be good news for Hughes (Oh look. I'm a poet). Wilson getting a six year term on top of a four year one might seem against the spirit of the Amendment, even if not the letter. This would probably be enough to switch the outcome at least in CA, ND and NH, and maybe other states too. So its probably Hughes 1917-23.

This makes 1922 hard to call. Assuming Mr Hughes Goes To War, as Mr Wilson did, the backlash against foreign entanglements, and against the remebered wartime sacrifices, will fall on the Republicans instead of the Democrats. So if it's still Harding v Cox (by no means guaranteed, of course) Cox may very well win.

One possible complication. If Wilson has been out of office since 1917, could he avoid his 1919 stroke? If so, he might be tempted to run again in '22. It's a long shot, though, and I doubt if he'd live out his term.

1928. Could still be Hoover v Smith, assuming the Klan bubble still bursts in 1926, so if the nation is enjoying the same boom prosperity as OTL, we could get the first Catholic President a generation earlier.

Then things get iffy. Does the Wall Street Crash still happen on schedule, and if so does Smith cope with it any better than Hoover did? If "yes and no", Hoover may run again in 1934 as the man best fitted to deal with it. Don't laugh. He had a very high reputation until he blew it by actiually reaching the White House. Capax Imperator - - and all that.

So Smith 1929-35 and Hoover 1935-41. Assuming Hoover has done no better than Smith (or than himself OTL) 1940 is probably another Democratic year. Does FDR finally make it? If so, he can serve until 1947 if his death two years earlier is butterflied away. If it isn't, then his successor will serve less than three years and hence be eligible in 1946. His identity, of course, is anybody's guess. Garner, maybe?

Whoever it is, the 1952 winner will probably still be Ike, if he plays a wartime role anything like OTL's. If 1958 is even remotely like OTL, the next POTUS will be a Democrat. Could still be JFK, but Stevenson is still possible, as he will, at most, only have been defeated once. JFK in 1964, maybe?

I think I'll leave it there. Anyone like to take it firther?
 
It would make the candidates come out and say what they would do instead of just saying what is wrong.

I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of politics

But I agree with the rest of what you said, at least as far as AH.

Going back to the OP, if the Dems and Wilson can get this amendment passed, I doubt Wilson is going to win for another six years. Remember, at this point the US still isn't in the war.

OTL the 1916 Election was between Wilson running for re-election vs Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes. ITL I don't think Wilson will run again, because if he won he'd serve for ten years straight. Even if he did win, I think that's going to hurt him badly, and he's not going to get the Democratic party nomination, nor win the general election.

OTL the Progressive Party is still around. They nominated TR for the election, but he turned it down and threw his support behind Hughes. Roosevelt turned down the Progressive nomination for both personal and political reasons; he had become convinced that running for President on a third-party ticket again would merely give the election to the Democrats. He had also developed a strong dislike for President Wilson, who he believed was allowing Germany and other warring nations in Europe to "bully" the United States. After that, the Progressives quietly fell apart, with the majority folding back into the Republican Party.

ITL though, Wilson can't/won't be running for re-election. Does this mean TR gives it another go since he's less worried about a three-way ticket leading to a Dem in the White House again? Also if TR runs he's going to have the same problem that Wilson had as far as years in office already, only more so. This is slightly neutralized though in that TR has been out of office for four years, and still is wildly popular throughout the country.

OTL the only reason Hughes was chosen for the Republican nomination is because party bosses wanted somebody from the outside who could be a centrist to heal the divide of the 1912 election when TR and the Progressive wing left the Republicans to form their own party. Hughes didn't campaign for election, but he let it be known that he wouldn't turn it down if offered to him. Conservative Senator Elihu Root of New York and liberal Senator John W. Weeks of Massachusetts were both actively campaigning for the party nod at this point. If TR is actively campaigning as the Progressive Candidate, you probably won't see a Hughes election, and more likely either Root or Weeks get the party nod.

Root graduated from NYU School of Law in 1867, and went into private practice as a lawyer, which he was very successful at for many years. He was US Attorney for the Southern District of New York under President Arthur. Root had been Sec. of War under McKinley and TR (1899-1904), and was reponsible for reforming the War Dept, enlarging West Point, and establishing both the US Army War College and the General Staff. He changed the procedures for promotions and organized schools for the special branches of the service. He also devised the principle of rotating officers from staff to line. Root was concerned about the new territories acquired after the Spanish-American War and worked out the procedures for turning Cuba over to the Cubans, and wrote the charter of government for the Philippines. He then left the cabinet post in 1904 and returned to private practive as a lawyer. One year later though, TR named Roots to the Sec of State, where he basically did the same thing for the civil service as he did for the Army. He maintained the Open Door Policy in the Far East. On a tour to Latin America in 1906, Root persuaded those governments to participate in the Hague Peace Conference. He worked with Japan in emigration to the United States and in dealings with China and established the Root-Takahira Agreement, which limited Japanese and American naval fortifications in the Pacific. He worked with Great Britain in resolving border disputes between the United States (Alaska) and Canada and also in the North Atlantic fisheries. He supported arbitration in resolving international disputes. In 1909 he was elected US Senator, becoming a member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In 1912 he won the Nobel Peace Price for his international work. He choose not to run for re-election in 1914, and once again returned to his private practice.

OTL, when the 1916 Republican National Convention comes around he's 71 years old. So he's got a lot going for him, but that age thing is really going to be working against his chances. OTL he lived until 1937 though (!), and was constantly shuffling back and forth between his private practive and some position or another in various cabinets and government postings.

Weeks though is also an interesting character. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1881, and served two years in the Navy. He made a fortune in the 1890s after co-founding the Boston financial firm Hornblower & Weeks in 1888. He become interested in politics, and served as alderman and then mayor of his hometome until 1904. He was elected serve the 12th Congressional District of Massachusetts in 1905, which he served till 1913. He then was a Senator for Mass. from 1913 till 1919 OTL. Weeks made various contributions to important banking and conservation legislation. His most notable accomplishment as Congressman was the passage of the Weeks Act in 1911, his name-sake bill that enabled the creation of national forests in the eastern United States.

My take on it is that Root is selected for the Republican National Convention, with Weeks as his VP. OTL after losing in 1916, and then losing his Senate re-election in 1918, Weeks laid low for while. In 1920 President Harding made him the Sec of War, where he oversaw the downsizing of the Dept of War after the return to peace-time standards following WW1. However, his constant work ethic of working long hours and nights led to him having a stroke in 1915, which he survived but led him to resign as Sec of War that year. He died several months later.

OTL the election was a very tight, one of the closest in US history. On election night Hughes took an early lead in the Eastern and Midwestern states, and several newspapers declared him the winner. However, Wilson refused to concede, and as returns came in from the South and West, Wilson made a comeback and eventually took the lead. The key state proved to be California, which Wilson won by only 3,800 votes out of nearly a million cast. The electoral vote was one of the closest in American history - with 266 votes needed to win, Wilson took 30 states for 277 electoral votes, while Hughes won 18 states and 254 electoral votes. If Hughes had carried California and its 13 electoral votes, he would have won the election. In the popular vote Wilson's lead was larger, although it was still narrow - Wilson took 49% of the popular vote to Hughes' 46%. A popular legend from the 1916 campaign states that Hughes went to bed on Election Night thinking that he was the newly-elected president. When a reporter tried to telephone him the next morning to get his reaction to Wilson's comeback, someone (stories vary as to whether this person was his son or a butler or valet) answered the phone and told the reporter that "the President is asleep." The reporter retorted, "When he wakes up, tell him he isn't the President."
 
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ITL though, Wilson can't/won't be running for re-election. Does this mean TR gives it another go since he's less worried about a three-way ticket leading to a Dem in the White House again? Also if TR runs he's going to have the same problem that Wilson had as far as years in office already, only more so. This is slightly neutralized though in that TR has been out of office for four years, and still is wildly popular throughout the country.


Under the Amendment as given, he can't. He has already served as President fo more than three years, and he isn't the incumbent.

However, the party will still need someone acceptable to his disgruntled supporters (who probbaly blame the Regulars for providing the votes needed to pass the Amendment) and Hughes is about the most conservative choice they can make and have any chance of holding onto them.
 
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