Millennials have a bad name. Most news articles about the world’s second youngest generation say that we’re, per the cover of Time Magazine, “lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents.”

As a millennial, I find this stereotype rather offensive. But then someone like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez comes along.

This week, Ocasio-Cortez was quoted as saying that, “(The GOP) had to amend the Constitution of the United States to make sure (Franklin Delano) Roosevelt did not get reelected.” As many have pointed out, this statement makes no sense since the amendment was enacted two years after FDR died.

Unless his ghost was running for president, FDR was not aiming for an eventual fifth term. (At this time, there is no evidence that FDR’s spectral form is haunting the Oval Office and running the country from the shadows either.)

Her statements are not just factually inaccurate, but just plain uneducated when it comes to the history of the U.S. and why such a measure was enacted in the first place. Since its inception, the U.S. has had a healthy fear of giving too much power to their leaders. The Founding Fathers wanted to avoid the tyranny of a monarchy occurring in their new country, and put into place checks and balances to prevent that from happening.

George Washington understood the importance of limiting time in power. As the first president of the United States, and one of its greatest generals, there were a variety of people who wanted Washington to continue his presidency into a third term. But Washington decided against it. He had some foresight and understood that great power could result in tyranny. He also saw that the political parties of the day were too divided.

“The line between parties (are so clearly drawn),” Washington said. “(That politicians) regard neither truth nor decency; attacking every character, without respect to persons – Public or Private, – who happen to differ from themselves in politics.”

Sounds shockingly familiar to the times we live in, right? Washington understood, perhaps better than most, that power does have tendency to corrupt.

In 1947, Congress decided to limit the time that a president has in power and by 1951 enough states ratified the amendment. (It could also be argued that term limits should also be extended to the House and Senate members as well).

It is an important amendment. There was only one U.S. president to ever be elected for four terms, and likely the only reason FDR won his fourth election was in part because the country was embroiled in World War II. It was basically unthinkable for the people to bring in a new leader during such a large conflict. At the time, reelecting FDR made sense, despite his failing health.

Term limits are crucial to maintaining the integrity of the presidency, especially in order to limit sweeping changes from happening to the country. Part of the reason Ocasio-Cortez wants to reverse presidential term limits is in order to keep progressives in power long enough to push a radical agenda based on the flawed philosophy of socialism. What she fails to realize, or tries to ignore, is the fact that we’re a country of more than 300 million people and one party and policy does not fit all.

Over the last decade or so, millennials have been given a bad name and politicians like Ocasio-Cortez don’t help. Instead of approaching issues with a sense of entitlement, AOC should approach a question about term limits with a air of humility and a historical understanding. Power limits are always a good thing, history has proven that time and time again.