Can anyone tell me why American presidents cannot have more then 2 terms in office?
After the American Revolution, the founding fathers feared that a person who became president could become like a king or dictator if he stayed in power too long (this has hapened in other so-called democracies). They had a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ that no one would serve for more than two terms. All presidents up to FDR abided by this ‘gentleman’s agreement’. During WW II, the politicians and the people didn’t want to “change horses in the middle of a war”, so FDR was elected to a third and fourth term. After the war, people were frightened by how easily on man could take and hold the reins of power for so long (16 years). They decided that the ‘gentleman’s agreement’ no longer sufficed to prevent this from happening, so the 22nd Amandment to the Constitution was proposed, and ratified by the necessary 2/3 of the States, limiting all future Presidents to two terms in office. Therefore no one man can serve for more than eight years (either consecutively or seperately).
