Posted
on February 6, 2016
One
thing that the United States has been pretty good at, all these
years, is the peaceful transition of power. As I read and write about
world history, and even world current events, there has been so much
“and then so-and-so's army killed the ruler, and so-and-so became
the new ruler” or other violent stuff like that. No matter how
vicious political speeches and ads are, at times (and I don't like a
dirty campaign!) - at least there hasn't been much mayhem and death
as a
Democratic-Republican
took over from a Federalist, or a Whig took over from a Democrat, or
whatever.
The
Founders knew that a smooth, peaceful transition of power would take
time, so there was time built in. Too much time, it turns out! There
used to be five months for the newly elected president to choose a
cabinet and get up to speed on security issues and physically move to
Washington. (If you think about how slow transportation and
communication was, back then, that makes sense.) But remember, in all
that time, the old president was busy governing the nation – and
doing who-knows-what, now that he knows for sure he'll soon be out of
a job.
A
president who knows that he will soon be out of the president-ing biz
is called a “lame duck.” That term comes from England in the
1600s, when “lame ducks” was a nickname for stockbrokers who
could not pay off their debts. There are also lame duck Senators and
Representatives. Indeed, ANY person holding a political office could
be considered a lame duck if he or she:
(1)
tried for re-election, but lost the election,
(2) chose not to
run for re-election,
(3) was not allowed to run for
re-election, because of a “term limit,”
(4) was not
allowed to run for re-election, because the office held was
eliminated.
Because
U.S. presidents are not allowed any more than two 4-year terms,
President Obama cannot run for re-election again in November of this
year. So he can be considered a lame duck president. But, remember,
lame-duckness happens to all presidents, sooner or later (unless
something tragic happens and they die in office).
The
humorist Will Rogers once warned that lame duck officials can be
dangerous to the nation. He said, “An
awful lot of people are confused as to just what is meant by a lame
duck Congress. It’s like where some fellows worked for you and
their work wasn’t satisfactory and you let ’em out, but after you
fired ’em, you let ’em stay long enough so they could burn your
house down.”
In
the modern era, with rapid transportation and instant communication,
a new president doesn't need 5 months to put together a team, get up
to speed on issues, and move to Washington. And in 1933, lawmakers
passed and states ratified the 20th
Amendment to the Constitution to make the transition period shorter:
just 2 months.
Today
has been dubbed Lame Duck Day so that we can ponder the good aspects
of having a transitional period but also the possible problems of
lame duck officials making decisions without them being held
accountable by voters. It's possible that someday there will be
another change to prevent lame-duck Congress sessions passing a
flurry of unwanted laws that make the folks on the way out the door
rich!
By
the way, apparently today is Lame Duck Day because, although the 20th
“Lame Duck” Amendment was ratified in January of 1933, it
was February 6, 1933, that the U.S. Secretary of State proclaimed the
amendment.
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