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Comment by Supermancho | Hacker News Reader

I think this is a foolish belief.

> The third presidential term of Franklin D. Roosevelt began on January 20, 1941, when he was once again inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States, and the fourth term of his presidency ended with his death on April 12, 1945

There's already precedent.

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There's a whole Amendment about this.[1]

[1] https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-22/

True, famously, this administration is strictly bound by laws. Don't worry guys, we're safe.

One inferred point of the article is that eroding the first amendment makes the rest less imposing to circumvent.

I think it's the other way around: giving an insurrectionist the most powerful office in the land, a violation of the 14th, is a recipe for wanton malfeasance in office. All the other violations were made possible by that first one.

They're already pitching the idea that the 22nd amendment only prevents someone who had two consecutive terms from running again. Looking at the language of the amendment, I have no idea how they can justify that. But stranger things have happened recently. :-/

The 22nd amendment was passed after that though.

FDR was seen as getting America out of the Great Depression and navigating America through WW2 successfully. Oh and alcohol became legal again so you could celebrate the roaring manufacturing economy and military victories with a beer. Trump is no FDR.

He said today he was serious about seeking a 3rd term and has multiple ways to do so... it would be absolutely foolish to pretend like 'norms' or the Supreme Court would constrain him.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-third-te...

I’m aware; I’m mostly saying the third term of FDR is not really “precedent” given the degree of popular support FDR enjoyed and the lack of the 22nd amendment at the time.

Trump seeking a third term will be out of the ordinary, and if he were to “win” the election and be recognized as the president, it would mean the end of the constitution. And that could happen.

Yeah that's fair - I don't think he'd be elected via a popular uprising of support. It's a very different scenario that has my worried.

At some point every dictator was more popular with a crowd, sometimes even the moral crowd (Mugabe was aligned with liberating Zimbabwe from colonial rule). Who's to know what FDR would have become if biology hadn't saved him from extended exposure to power.

Trump merely happened to be far gone prior to stepping into office for the first time.

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