The Gratuitous Nature Of Term Limits

The American political system has been structured so that there are specific term limits that presidents, senators, and congresspersons are supposed to abide by.  For example, presidents are confined to serve a maximum of two consecutive four year terms, the common justification being that limiting the length and number of terms can prevent lapses into tyranny.  Behind the idea that term limitations are inherently good is the idea that power is either evil, albeit perhaps a so-called "necessary evil," or corrupting--and both ideas are flawed.

Does staying in office one day beyond American term limits transform someone into a malicious, tyrannical, egoistic leader?  What about two additional days in office?  Three?  What about one year?  If there is no fixed day on which someone inevitably becomes a tyrant after staying in office beyond the length of two terms, there is no necessary change into a tyrant that must occur.  Time does not reduce anyone to an abusive politician, just as the mere holding of power does not reduce anyone into evil.

The problem with many American politicians is not that there is an arbitrary number of days they have been in office.  Hypocrisy, assumed philosophical ideas, and a lack of willingness to only endorse stances that are rational and consistent are the problems with most American politicians.  The decision to be irrational or unjust is not made for a politician by anything other than their own intentions and lack of resolve.  Only an individual politician decides if they will descend into madness.

Political power is not a corrupting force external to humans; human social power does not exist without humans, who have the ability to choose how to express it.  It is something that every politician can choose to exercise in a rational and just manner.  No man or woman is a slave to tyrannical misuses of a political office.  This is true even when a politician is in office past whatever arbitrary time someone might think is the "appropriate" duration for serving in a political position.  No matter how uncomfortable it might make either conservatives or liberals in a given case, extended time in office is never the moral problem with a political system.