It just occurred to me how Trump can advance the cause of term limits in a truly meaningful and effective way.
To establish term limits, the U.S. Constitution must be amended. There are two ways to do that. One way is by 2/3 vote in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. The other way is to call a constitutional convention. That can be done if 2/3 of the state legislatures pass bills that call for such a convention. The states seat the delegates. If 3/4 of the states (38 states) ratify an amendment, the amendment becomes the law of the land, without involvement of Congress. (This is a time when all those red states could come in handy.)
In the campaign, Trump proposed a six year cap for U.S. Representatives and a 12 year cap for U.S. Senators. If I was on the Trump team, I'd advise him to draft the proposed amendment and proceed on both fronts.
In Congress:
Start now to line up as many term limit bill co-sponsors as possible. In the present state of things, it is reasonable to expect that every Republican House and Senate member can be invited/encouraged/pressured to sign on. Then lobby/pressure/horse-trade with targeted Democrats to get the necessary votes.
In the Nation:
Initiate action in all 50 states to call for a Constitutional Convention. Once such a convention is called, anything can be added to the agenda. That thought would terrify the now-seated House and Senate members enough to come on board as co-sponsors of a term limit bill that has that as its single objective. Better to keep things to one amendment than open the country to the constitutional chaos a constitutional convention may create, they would reason (methinks).
This is not as far-fetched as some may think. It stands to reason that at this early point in the game, Trump could rally his base to support term limits. Among Democrats and independents, a fair amount of support also exists for term limits. Term limit actions have been tried before, but never when the president is solidly behind the initiative and his party controls both houses.
If Trump focused primarily on this issue and left the others wait a bit, there are HUGE organizational benefits to be gained. With this initiative, Trump could expand his support base to include term limit supporters of all stripes. At the grass roots level, term limits supporters would have to work together to get this done, regardless of party affiliation and regardless of their opinion of Trump.
By working together, these term-limit supporters become better acquainted and more tightly knit. Their job at the local level is to recruit additional volunteers and lean heavy on their state and federal elected officials to support the amendment.
There is not a single other issue on the Trump agenda that has the potential to unite the country better than this one. By focusing on a single issue with parallel efforts in all 50 states, grass-roots Trump supporters could be more united than ever. By working on this issue, they would form the relationships, skills, and practical techniques that would enhance their state organizations in a major way. With these grass-roots organizations so enhanced, Trump would find it easier to advance the other items on his agenda.
Of all the items on the Trump agenda, term limits alone has this profound, organization-building, political muscle-flexing potential. Additionally, this issue gives Trump the initiative. It's not like the others where he'd introduce legislation and it falls to representatives and senators to decide what happens next. A term limits bill consists of one sentence. Unlike a bill that can get buried in a committee, this one is immediately everywhere in the country once it is introduced. This is why Trump should make term limits first and foremost in his first 100 days as president.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Double Bonus! Trump himself can spend his time bouncing from rally to rally promoting term limits and blasting the corrupt establishment politicians who oppose this reform (something he loves to do). That in itself may be enough to convince the opponents to take the pain and vote for the amendment. The alternative is to face that well-organized group of skilled voters when they are up for reelection. .
Let the other stuff wait. Amend the constitution to truly reform the USA., then, with more grass-roots political power behind you than ever before, rock and roll on the rest.
The other issues on the Trump agenda are more divisive. If Trump focuses on them first or simultaneously, he blows this opportunity of a political lifetime.
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