Exactly As Designed

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." ~ George Washington

"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority." ~ James Madison

These quotes demonstrate that the Founding Fathers had concerns about the development of an elite ruling class. Their expectation was that citizens would step up, serve in elected positions for a short period of time, and then revert to their former life. Sadly today, we have 30, 40, 50 year career politicians who are more interested in enriching themselves than serving their country and her citizens. That is exactly what the Founding Fathers feared might happen. The Founders clearly understood human nature and tried to account for it.

Technically, the United States Constitution does have term limits for members of Congress. However, due to an oversight by the Founding Fathers, they assumed an elected member of Congress would serve their term and then go home. So, defining further limits was thought unnecessary. How well has that worked out for us?

"Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it." ~ George Washington

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired." ~  Alexander Hamilton

"It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail." ~ Samuel Adams

"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions." ~ James Madison

"Power is the great evil with which we are contending. We have divided power between three branches of government and erected checks and balances to prevent abuse of power. However, where is the check on the power of the judiciary? If we fail to check the power of the judiciary, I predict that we will eventually live under judicial tyranny." ~ Patrick Henry

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." ~ Lord Acton 1887

We now find ourselves in 2025, and we have been awakened to the abuse of power, by what DOGE found in the massive amounts of corruption by power-hungry career politicians. Then most recently, the uncovering of the previously hidden burn bags that have the Washington swamp creatures shaking in their boots. The common element is corruption allowed by professional career politicians of both major political parties. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." ~ George Washington

President Trump is proof why the Founders designed the system as they did. The elite ruling class of professional career politicians is a demonstration of what the Founding Fathers feared and shows that power absolutely corrupts. Even when many elected officials go to Washington with good intentions, they get co-opted by the corrupt uniparty political machine. The best of them turns away after fighting a losing battle with that corrupt uniparty machine after a couple of terms in office.

There is only one way, in accordance with the United States Constitution, that the corruption in the swamp of Washington DC. will ever be minimized and that requires that We the People, who vote in America, impose term limits at the voting booth at every election. The ruling class of elite politicians must be dismissed and the terms of office limited to one for all elected positions. That is something we can always do and must do, if we are to regain and maintain control of the federal government. We the People simply can’t trust that our politicians won’t fall prey to corruption, sad as that may be.

Related: