George Washington didnt want the job and Thomas Jefferson didnt mention being president on his epitaph. Seems to me like it was closer to “Lead paperwork filer” than President. Today, when an African country develops a government and installs a president, very often the presidents remove the term limits, but all US presidents but one held to two terms just for ethics.
Is it that US presidents are already well off when they’re elected, or the American ecosystem has always had an itchy “That’s Facism” trigger finger? Was George Washington simply thay influential? Maybe ambitious politicians that push incumbents out are more common compared with Africa. I’m especially interested in how countries that emulate the US’ system are missing something, what could that be?
It is very popularized that Washington set the precedent of a two-term limit. This is found to be rather true for most U.S. presidents (with the exception of FDR, who was nominated for four terms; also, Grover Cleveland served as both the 22nd and 24th president). Washington wanted to help a young nation get started, but also knew that nothing good could come from wielding that kind of power for too long. But some political, economic, and social factors led to some presidents not wanting to seek reelection or for them not receiving reelection. James K. Polk vowed to only serve one term, which he did. Abraham Lincoln's election caused eleven southern states to secede, but he still won reelection to his second term, only to be assassinated months into it. Lincoln could have served more in order to complete Reconstruction, but we will never know... The Adamses did not get reelected, respectively, because of their negative reception from both Congress and the American people. George H. W. Bush only served one term, but his son served two terms.
And with the way the U.S. federal government is set up, the President cannot create laws; Congress does. So the U.S. president cannot create a law getting rid of term limits. FDR served four consecutive terms because it was not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution how many terms a president can serve, until Congress passed the 22nd Amendment shortly after FDR's death; this means that a U.S. President cannot hold office more than once (like Cleveland), or for more than two consecutive four year terms (like FDR). The checks and balances system is in place to keep one branch of the government from gaining too much power.