MICROBYTE: WHAT IF THEY LIVE TO BE 100?

Our founders were obsessed with the idea of checks and balances, making certain that power wouldn’t end up in the wrong hands, ruin their idea of America, and we’d be right back to a country run by Kings, Aristocrats, and the Nobility.

That’s why they created three equally powerful branches of government, kind of a sophisticated, structural Mexican standoff.

The job of the Judicial Branch is to keep the other two honest, at least as far as interpreting the Constitution is concerned. 

One way to make sure that the Justices would be immune to political influence, they thought, would be to give them lifetime appointments. 

A Noble Idea, but not without serious flaws. For one thing, when they thought “lifetime,” people only lived to an average of 35 years.  

Plus, devious devils that we are, we’ve figured out that there are ways around their Noble Idea. We’ve seen that the Supreme Court can be politicized. And that throws a large wrench in the idea of checks and balances.

So now what? 

Well, all things considered, great, many serious political thinkers now think that term limits of say 15 years would be a reasonable answer. 

MICROBYTE: POLITICS SHOULD NOT BE A CAREER.

The founders never envisioned that anyone would want to make politics a career. Aside from the physical and financial sacrifices, they would surely view anyone who would want to make politics a career as a threat to their vision oif America.

Without getting too nerdy, our founders were heavily influenced by Greek and Roman philosophers, particularly a celebrated Roman General and statesman, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who returned to his farm and his “plow” after serving his duty to Rome. 

George Washington himself considered himself a farmer first and said: 

 “I would rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.”

Thomas Jefferson, on the same subject, said, “I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service and of retiring with hands as clean as they are empty.”

Now, Congress is loaded with career politicians, some in their 80s and 90s, some of whom have been there for half a century, recycling a bunch of stale ideas and accumulating unlimited power for themselves. And, without accusing anyone in particular, it is an absolute that nlimited power tends to produce unlimited corruption.

Mayors, governors, and presidents all have term limits, so why not Congress? It would change America for the better–overnight. So, why not? Because they'd have to vote themselves out of a job, that’s why. And the only way that’s gonna happen is if We The People demand it. 

REAGAN. His life and legend. (Pulitzer Prize finalist)

(Author: Max Boot, Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corp., 735 pages.)

“This is a timely and fascinating book, just what we need to understand, and perhaps transcend, our current age of political paralysis and polarization. Understanding Reagan is key to understanding our politics today.”

-Walter Isaacson

“This is the definitive Reagan biography that so many of us have been waiting for. Max Boot clears away the myths and presents the real Ronald Reagan, with all his strengths and also his shortcomings.”

-General David Petraeus As an Amazon Associate, we earn commission from qualifying purchases.

“President Trump called the Epstein files controversy a witch hunt. Yeah, a witch hunt, as in, it’s a hunt for which files contain Trump.”

Jimmy Fallon