Bebe Nicholson: Many thanks for taking the time to engage with this post and share your exemplary insights. I concur with your assessment: “The country is hopelessly divided, with corruption and egomania on both sides.”

This deep division only turns off more people to government and public office — especially young people — by creating an aura of cynicism and mistrust (a lose-lose situation for all).

Regarding term limits, I have three points:

1. The presidency has term limits, as you know, of two 4-year terms. Do you think this should be different? Perhaps one term for a certain number of years — any recommendations?
2. Opponents of term limits in Congress will say there’s already “term limits” per se every 2-years via national elections. Moreover, they will argue that limiting the terms for members of Congress will only leave an institutional power vacuum that would be filled by empowering congressional staffers who already run the show behind the scenes (at least those are the arguments I’ve heard).
3. Some have expressed concern, which I share, that Trump will refuse to leave office. The reasons is because he’s likely to be indicted, and probably jailed, the day he’s a private citizen. The presidency is the the only thing protecting Trump via “executive privilege” and DOJ’s memo stating a sitting president is immune from indictment in criminal proceedings (discussed above). Trump is already an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Michael Cohen case in NY (not to mention multiple others pending investigations/cases into Trump via courts in the Southern District of New York). Even if Trump is impeached (doubtful for now) and/or loses the 2020 presidential election, he will claim “the system is rigged” and engage in protracted litigation (per his usual pattern) to remain in office as long as possible. He might also assert that FDR served three-terms, thus it’s justified (in his jaded view). I plan to address this perplexing problem in a follow-up article.

Again, I always appreciate your enlightening comments.