Talking About Constitutional Amendments: Did the 1947 United States Congress have candidates like Donald Trump in mind when it created the 22nd Amendment?
Did the 1947 United States Congress have candidates like Donald Trump in mind when it created the 22nd Amendment? No. The 80th U.S. Congress, which was under Republican control in 1947, only had one man in mind when it approved the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, and he was dead. That man was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States and the only one to run for the White House (and win ) four times. When the 80th Congress went into session on January 3, 1947, it reflected the nation’s weariness with the Democratic Party’s control of the government, which had lasted from 1933 to 1946, a period that included the twin challenges of the Great Depression and the Second World War. FDR and his party had steered the American ship of state through both storms decisively if not always adroitly. but as often happens when one party lingers too long in power, the electorate in 1946 got restless and decided it wanted change in Congress. One of the...