Is this conversation really up for debate over the Twenty-Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? As it stands, Section 1 states, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once.”

This amendment prohibits any person from being elected President of the United States more than twice. Long before it was ratified, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both chose not to seek a third term, helping establish the two-term tradition that lasted for generations. That tradition was broken by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to a third term in 1940 and then a fourth term in 1944.

On March 21, 1947, Congress approved the amendment and submitted it to the states for ratification. The process was completed on February 27, 1951, when 36 of the 48 states had ratified it. At the time, Alaska and Hawaii had not yet been admitted as states. Once the required number of states approved it, the amendment became part of the Constitution.

Roosevelt’s third and fourth terms raised serious concerns about whether any president should be allowed to serve unlimited terms. That reality helped lead to the ratification of the Twenty-Second Amendment. Repealing or changing it today would require another constitutional amendment. An amendment may be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or through a convention requested by two-thirds of the state legislatures. Either way, it would then require ratification by three-fourths of the states, or 38 out of 50.

Do we really want to repeal the Twenty-Second Amendment? I think two terms should be plenty for any sitting President. Maybe if Congress could stop being so shortsighted, We the People might have more of a voice on the real issues facing this country. This is not about one person or one political moment. It is about whether too much power should ever remain in one office for too long.