Putin is President...AGAIN

On Monday, Vladimir Putin was elected as Russia’s President for the third time.  Mr. Putin was acting President for Russia in 1999 when Boris Yeltsin resigned.  He then won the 2000 presidential election.  After serving one (four year) term, he was re-elected in 2004.  In 2008, he had no choice but to step down as President.  According to Russian law, you can only serve for two terms in a row.  There is nothing restricting the number of terms you can serve, however.  So you could be President for two terms, step out for a term, and then run for another two.  This can repeat as many times as you can be elected.  Putin is doing this currently.

Since Putin has been gone from office, Dmitry Medvedev has been President.  Vladimir has stood as the Prime Minister of Russia (which he still today).  The Prime Minister is the second most powerful official in the Russian Federation.  If the President dies, resigns, or is impeached, the Prime Minister would become President. 

Alright, that is enough education on Russian politics.  Now to the point of my story…

When Putin was elected on Monday, thousands of Russian’s protested.  CBS news has a story about 20,000 Russians rioting over his re-election.  The question is…why are they so upset?  Putin won 64% of the votes!

In Putin’s two terms of presidency, the economy grew, the GDP increased by 72%, and the poverty rate decreased by more than 50%, and made a flat tax of 13%!  What is the problem with that?  I know some American’s hear Putin and think KGB, Communist, or in simple terms…an evil man.  While it is true he was a communist and a member of the KGB, he eventually came around and became more for a democratic society.  He has been in power of one anyway.

I am not saying I agree with Putin being President again, but I had a though concerning American Presidential elections.  Why can’t our President run for more than two terms?

Is not this country proud of the fact that people have the freedom to run for an office?  If the President could be in office for more than two terms, I don’t think it would cause the US any problems. 

For Presidential Elections, the people would still vote on whom they want and their representatives base their vote on the people.  Nothing would change in the Electoral College.  If the people do not like the President, he will not win their votes.  Resulting in him not being President anymore.  Would the system really change that much?  If we have a great leader who is doing wonderful things for our country, why wouldn’t we let them stay in office longer?

Putin did do wonderful things for Russia.  Some may not be happy he is back in office, but not everyone is going to be happy when it comes to politics.  If we had a leader like Putin (or someone with the ability to do beneficial things to our country), why should we deny them of serving more than two terms?

To me, changing the Constitution and allowing the president to serve more than two terms would not have that great of an impact on the US.  I think the change would actually make the US more Democratic.  I am just wondering what other opinions are on this hypothetical change.  If the Constitution were to be changed so the President could run for more than two terms, do you think it would create a huge problem for the US?