It’s not often I find myself in agreement with the venerable liberal political scientist James MacGregor Burns, but today he and his Williams College colleague Susan Dunn have a good argument in the New York Times that we should repeal the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit on presidents, a step that would be good for democracy and good for the presidency.

I wonder if I can persuade them to join me in calling for repeal as well of the 17th Amendment (which removed state legislatures from the process of electing U.S. senators and installed direct popular election), a step that would be good for federalism and good for the Senate. That too would be in keeping with the framers’ wisdom on institutional design, but somehow I doubt Burns and Dunn will buy it.