Term Lengths and Limitations

My opponent has somewhat mischaracterized my position. It is not my contention that the people will always provide a protection from dictatorship or totalitarianism. There are many instances when the people are indeed powerless to prevent a large-scale coup (although, arguably they how the power to take it back when conditions become too harsh). Additionally, Pro has ignored some important aspects of my position in order to simplify. --------------- PRO Pro's position can be summarized as follows: A popular, competent chief executive will inevitably become a dictator because the people will give him more power as time goes on in order to 'fix' problems. To do this, the people will ammend the constitution. Once this occurs they will elect someone like this copetent executive when he dies. In this way the U.S. would become a dynasty. To back up this claim he cites the fictional film 'Star Wars' (do not adjust your monitor, you read that correctly) in which an elected executive is given dictatorial powers. RESPONSE This is in no way the only and inevitable consequence of removing term limits. Pro is forgetting the constitutional, legislative, and judicial checks on executive power. To begin, the American people jealously guard their republic. It is unlikely that they would reverse this centuries-old tradition. However, if it did become the desire of the people to give an executive dictatorial power, there are many other strong barriers in the way. The constitution of the United States prohibits dictatorship. To amend the constitution requires a two-third majority of the legislature. Even if by some extremely unlikely scenario that the legislature were willing to give up its power to the executive, the Judicial branch still stands in the way. Such an amendment by the legislature to the constitution would be illegal, and the Judicial branch has the ability to veto it. As we see, it would be a very difficult road to dictatorship. Perhaps more relevent to this debate is the fact that such a hypothetical scenario is just as likely to occur with an executive who IS limited by the twenty-second amendment. ------------- DISTRUST OF THE PEOPLE Pro makes repeated refrences to the 'stupidity' of the masses. It is my belief that he overstates the inability of the people to recognize what is in their own interest. Let us imagine for a moment that he is correct, and the people cannot be trusted to guard their own civil liberties; ascertain what is in their best interest; or notice when their chief executive is assuming dictatorial powers. Assuming Pro is correct, there are still other obstacles to dictatorship and totalitarianism written into the constitution and in the form of the legislative and judicial branches. ------------- LAME DUCK - CORRUPTION Pro has not addressed this issue, except to offer the sarcastic and snide remark: >>>"So I'm almost done with my second term of presidency. I guess that means I can kill some people I don't like and invade a bunch of countries illegally right?"<<< Pro has set up the straw man. No one claimed that anyone would (or could) go around killing or imprisoning dissenters, or that he could illegally invade another nation. It would seem that Pro only offers extreme examples because he cannot come up with a valid argument for my point. What can, and does, occur with term limits is that politicians take advantage of their position for personal gain while they can. They are not accountable to the people because they cannot be elected to another term. This is particularly true for a chief executive because there is no higher office to which he may aspire. He is free to hand out fat contracts and patronage positions to his friends and supporters. Since Pro has not addressed this issue with any sort of validity, my argument stands and extends to the final round of debate. -------------- CONCLUSION Pro has wasted his second round of debate mischaracterizing my position. He either simplifies my position to attack something I did not claim, or completely ignores them. It is my sincere hope that he can correct these mistakes in the final round.