On Limited Terms

I saw this Internet meme on a facebook page called "Conservative Patriots of America".

It appears to be true:   75% of Americans responding to a Gallup poll in January of 2013 say they would vote in favor of term limits. (Although the specifics of the limits are unclear.  Perhaps two terms, the same as the President?)

So 'debunking' the meme is finished quickly; it's accurate. But who are the people pictured behind the words of this meme and why were they particularly chosen as the poster children for the issue of congressional term limits?

The woman is Nancy Pelosi and the man is  Harry Reid, both long standing, high profile members of Congress. It seems the creator of this meme wants us all to promote the idea of term limits so that these two will be forced off Capitol Hill.

A quick perusal of the 113th Congress shows many members way over what anyone might consider being exempt from a measure to limit terms.  Pelosi and Reid are not even the two that have been there the longest, but they both happen to be Democrats, so I suppose the  Conservative Patriots consider them too liberal, too much in support of the Obama administration.

Pelosi is the House Minority Leader and Reid is the House Majority Leader, so between the two, they wield a significant amount of power and influence. It is understandable that frustrated Republicans want them removed from the legislative process.

So does this mean that the Conservative Patriots are proposing terms limits only for Democrats?

Or are they are unaware that there are some Republicans who have been in power as long or longer than these two Democrats?

Are they willing to give up their own entrenched elder statesmen in order to get rid of those on the opposite side of the aisle?


Nancy Pelosi is 72, a Representative from California who has been in the House since 1987.
Harry Reid is 73 years old.  He has been serving as a Senator from Nevada since 1987.

Mitch McConnell is 71 years old, a Republican from Kentucky, currently serving as the Senate Minority Leader. He has been in congress since 1985.

John McCain, also a Republican, is 76 years old and has been serving as a Senator from Arizona since 1987.

John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio and currently the House Majority Leader, has been on Capitol Hill a bit less time, arriving on the scene in 1991. He is only 63 years old, but I imagine he'd be asked to step down if a term limits measure was enacted.

And Orrin Hatch, a powerful Republican from Utah, has been representing his state in the House since 1977. He is 78 years old.

I will leave you to explore further and to draw your own conclusions about the motives behind the creation of the meme, but it seems to me that this issue of term limits is truly bipartisan.  Republicans may stand to gain from such a measure, but not without sacrificing a few of their most powerful politicians to the cause.

Perhaps the Conservative Patriots ought to be careful what they wish for.

Tradition!

As Americans, we have such faith in the rightness of the principles established at the beginning of our nation. We are fiercely protective of our traditions and fearful of straying too far from the path envisioned by our founding fathers. Our independence was hard-won, after all, and our democratic republic does indeed offer us a precious freedom.

Since our country's history is not very long --only a few hundred years-- it seems as though we should be able to remember it accurately and easily stay on track, but this is surprisingly not so.  

For instance, people get upset when changes are proposed to the Pledge of Allegiance, especially when it is proposed that the words, "under God" be tampered with, even though there was no such thing as a 'pledge of allegiance' until 1892, that it was not officially recognized by Congress until 1923, and the words 'under God' were not added until 1954. 

And from time to time a furor erupts as to whether the phrase "In God We Trust" on our currency should be removed or altered -- as if the motto was handed down directly from Washington and Jefferson.  In reality our money did not include this phrase until 1864.  So intense is the debate on this subject that The Supreme Court was recently asked to take up the question of whether the motto is a government endorsement of religion, which would be a violation of the separation of Church and State.  (The Court denied review without comment -- wisely, it seems to me.)

These examples came to mind this morning when I found the above Internet meme posted on the facebook page of Being Liberal. Here is a relatively rare example of a liberal group using one of the 'founding fathers' to make a point. Conservative groups --especially The Tea Party -- are far more likely to quote (or misquote) our early statesmen, most often these days in the context of the second amendment and the right to bear arms. 

Many sources report the fact that John Quincy Adams did not take the oath of office using a Bible, that he used a book of  law instead, so the first part of the meme's assertion is correct. But did he make this choice specifically to demonstrate support for the separation of Church and State? 

There doesn't seem to be any evidence to support this claim.  He apparently makes mention of the choice in his diary, indicating that he chose the book of law because he was swearing fealty to those laws, to upholding the Constitution. 

I think the makers of the meme have overstepped, choosing a motivation for his actions because it suits their purpose.

John Quincy Adams was an extremely religious man who held the Bible in highest esteem, as his letters to his son  make abundantly clear.  Here is an excerpt from one letter:

St. Petersburg, Sept., 1811

MY DEAR SON: In your letter of the 18th January to your mother, you mentioned that you read to your aunt a chapter in the Bible or a section of Doddridge’s Annotations every evening. This information gave me real pleasure; for so great is my veneration for the Bible, and so strong my belief, that when duly read and meditated on, it is of all books in the world, that which contributes most to make men good, wise, and happy — that the earlier my children begin to read it, the more steadily they pursue the practice of reading it throughout their lives, the more lively and confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens to their country, respectable members of society, and a real blessing to their parents. 

It is interesting then, that he, of all Presidents, would choose not to use it in his inauguration.  Perhaps he felt that the Bible was too sacred to be involved in any non-religious ceremony.  

His decision, then, might represent a sort of deliberate separation of church and state, but a different sort than we are accustomed to these days.   Rather than venerating the State as something not to be corrupted by the influence of any one religious power,  it seems Adams could be suggesting the Bible might be too pure and sacred for him to involve with mundane matters.  

Fun Fact # 1,086

I have been away from my desk for a few weeks, visiting distant climes,

 blissfully unplugged from The News.       

 I had a ball, but now it is time to get back to work.    

I ran across the above Internet meme on a conservative group's facebook page, saved it and then forgot to make note of where I'd  found it. Now that I"m ready to write, I can't find it on facebook, but I did find it on the social network site for TeaParty.org, otherwise known as The Tea Party Command Center.

The allegation that the Obamas surrendered their law licenses in order to avoid suspension or prosecution was easy to debunk.  A quick Google search yielded several detailed evaluations of this particular urban legend, but what about the website address shown boldly in red?  How does it back up the meme's claims?

The link provided took me  to the website of the IARDC (Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois).  On the website one can search for a lawyer's status simply by typing in a name.  The information given for each of the Obamas is this:

Full Licensed Name:	Michelle Obama
Full Former name(s):	Michelle Lavaughn Robinson
Date of Admission as Lawyer     by Illinois Supreme Court:	May 12, 1989
Registered Business Address:	Not available online
Registered Business Phone:	Not available online
Illinois Registration Status:	Voluntarily inactive and not authorized to practice law
Malpractice Insurance: (Current as of date of registration; consult attorney for further information)	No malpractice report required as attorney is on inactive status.

Public Record of Discipline and Pending Proceedings:

None

Full Licensed Name:	Barack Hussein Obama
Full Former name(s):	None
Date of Admission as Lawyer     by Illinois Supreme Court:	December 17, 1991
Registered Business Address:	Not available online
Registered Business Phone:	Not available online
Illinois Registration Status:	Voluntarily retired and not authorized to practice law
Malpractice Insurance: (Current as of date of registration; consult attorney for further information)	In annual registration, attorney reported that he/she does not have malpractice coverage. (Some attorneys, such as judges, government lawyers, and in-house corporate lawyers, may not carry coverage due to the nature of their practice setting.)

Public Record of Discipline and Pending Proceedings:

None

Note that the terminology used in the meme is "voluntarily surrendered" but the terminology used on the IARDC site is "voluntarily inactive" in the case of Michelle Obama and "voluntarily retired" in the case of the President.  The site offers no information which supports the charges levied against either lawyer, so I guess the creator of the meme either didn't check it or didn't care based on the assumption that viewers wouldn't check it.

What interests me most is the facebook discussion which accompanied this meme.  

There were many comments which pointed out that these allegations were old and had been proven untrue, some even providing links to the Snopes.com information.  But those who wanted to believe the meme were unfazed, claiming as common knowledge that Snopes is left-leaning and not to be trusted. 

When another comment pointed that FactCheck also debunked the allegations,  those who still wanted to believe stated that the Obama administration is so powerful that all media sources are under its influence, made or paid to toe the party line.  

On and on the it went, until finally it became clear that the only 'facts' the Obama detractors were willing to accept were those presented in the meme, even though they were undocumented and anonymously reported.

Which only serves to prove the point that for some people, politics is a matter of faith rather than logic.