There Was a Time When Presidents Voluntarily Declined to Run for Reelection

Today’s generation of public servants fight tirelessly for the opportunity to serve the public and work tirelessly to serve the public as long as they may. They call it common service. Our extremely adolescent political class demonstrates the political leadership of today’s politicians ‘ dedication and patience. Or more plainly, they know a good soup train when they see one.

Consider, for instance, Old Joe Biden. Since Kamala Harris was eight years old, the corrupt politician has been living joyfully at the open trough. Even as the most powerful Democrats have called for him to leave the race, he has insisted that he will continue to thrive. Old Joe has made a lot of money as a public servant, and he does n’t see why he should. But it was n’t always this way. In the first century of our state, and even sometimes in the second, more than a few leaders declined to run for reelection, voluntarily relinquished strength, and went home.

In America’s first time, in fact, this willingness to give up social power was widely regarded as a signal of the health of the nation. Instead of optimistic individuals who were lusting after the luxuries of power and the advantages that came with it, the country was governed by real people workers who were in charge of the people truly serving the people. He was certainly capable of winning a second presidential election after serving twice as leader. Instead, he stayed at home and compared his situation to that of Cincinnatus, a Roman farmer who was half asked to take over the presidency in times of crises. When the issue was around, Cincinnatus, unseduced by electricity, went up to his plough. &nbsp,

America’s Cincinnatus, Washington, set a law. His descendants Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe all served two words and then relinquished the president. Washington had shown the way: America would be a republic whose governing authorities saw political office as a real service, not a way to enrich themselves, and they gladly gave it up. There was no Constitutional provision at the time that prevented them from seeking a third term ( or more thereafter ).

Yet seeking two terms amounted to a grasping ambition that was contrary to the notion of public office as a public service, according to the belief that pervades the middle of the 19th century. The 11th leader, James K. Polk, announced when he ran for president in 1844 that he would not be seeking a second word, and he kept his word. The 15th leader, James Buchanan, made the same commitment in his inaugural address on March 4, 1857, and kept it, but nobody really wanted him to work again anyway. He was the only president to have the letters J for a while. B. to be a severe loss at a time when many people in the country were concerned about the potential outbreak of a civil war. He ended up being the only one in a long line.

In 1968, Lyndon Johnson, the most recent leader to veer off rather than seek reelection, was scarcely a Cincinnatus sort. He retired more than suffer a resounding defeat in the November election because he was facing a significant issue from Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and was deeply unhappy as a result of the Vietnam War.

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Before Johnson, Harry Truman was qualified to run once in 1952 under the terms of the 22nd Amendment. He was, nevertheless, 68 centuries old, which at that moment was old for president, and not all that common, either, so a life of peaceful retirement seemed a vastly better option to facing World War II warrior David D. Eisenhower in a national campaign.

Calvin Coolidge was the most recent leader to retire, despite the possibility that he might possess won another term in office. On Aug. 2, 1927, the fifth anniversary of his becoming leader upon the death of Warren G. Harding, Coolidge called a press conference. Slips of paper were distributed, reading,” I do not choose to run for President in nineteen twenty eight” .&nbsp,

The man known as” Silent Cal” declined to comment further, though he stated on different occasions that if he ran for president, he would serve for almost ten times, which would be both unpleasant for the state and too much for any person. Another speech circulated, attributed to Coolidge’s family Grace:” Papa says there’s going to be a melancholy”. It was correct, regardless of whether she or he said it or not.

A leader who had been elected for four words was swept into office by that despair. Never before has a Chief Executive of America been elected, abiding by the will of the electorate or the new phrase limits of the 22nd Amendment ( and, in the case of JFK), by an enemy’s gun. Cincinnatus? Pshaw. Whatever Old Joe Biden may be, he ai n’t no Cincinnatus.

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