Posted on 08/12/2017 8:52:52 PM PDT by Neil E. Wright
Next month delegations of state lawmakers will travel to Phoenix, Arizona, to attend what organizers say will be the first formal convention of states since the Civil War. They’ll gather at the capitol, inside the turquoise-carpeted House chamber, and draw up rules for a hoped-for future meeting: a convention to draft an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
No “amendment convention” has taken place since the Constitution was written over 200 years ago. But the idea is gaining steam now, stoked by groups on the left and right that say amendments drafted and ratified by states are the last, best hope for fixing the nation’s broken political system and dysfunctional — some even say tyrannical — federal government.
“We have a Congress in the United States made up of two bodies — House and Senate — that are incapable of restricting their own power,” said Texas state Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Republican. With the conventions, he said, states are stepping in to clean up the mess.
The current push for a convention began in the early years of the Obama administration, mostly driven by Republican lawmakers. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are big supporters. So are former presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio. Although many amendment topics have been proposed, the most popular would require the federal government to balance its budget.
Twenty-seven states have passed resolutions in favor of a balanced budget amendment since the 1970s, observers say. The Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force, the main group currently pushing the idea, says it could get to 34 states before the next presidential election.
But to get the two-thirds of states required to force Congress to call a convention, the task force and its supporters will need to win over skeptical lawmakers and beat back opposing groups that say a convention called to discuss a single issue could end up rewriting crucial parts of the Constitution or scrapping the nation’s founding document altogether.
The two sides don’t even use the same words to discuss what they’re fighting over. Those in favor talk about an “amendment convention,” implying that only one amendment will be discussed. Those opposed say “Constitutional convention,” suggesting that the whole text could be rewritten.
The Arizona planning event, championed by Republicans and the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force, will focus on the balanced budget proposal that’s closest to triggering a convention.
Arizona state Rep. Kelly Townsend, a Republican who heads the committee organizing the event, said she hopes it will reassure people that delegates to a convention won’t do anything crazy. “There will not be a quote-unquote runaway convention,” she said. “That’s not going to happen.”
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Term limits. And Congress should fear going home.
New book? Glad to hear it.
Dude...
You’re spitting into the ocean.
So long as the official and legitimate branches of government have abandoned their oaths, all bets are off...
In the meantime, it’s all just words.
To me, what's "risky" is the current status quo.
Indeed, maybe we could elect more Republicans to Congress. But Art, you are so right: What's the point, if there's no dime's worth of difference between GOP politicians and Dem ones, in terms of the "confluence" of their self-serving main political interest, which is simply to preserve their privileges and get re-elected?
The "official" political culture emanating from Washington cares more about self-preservation at any cost than actually executing their constitutional duties WRT to We the People. We the People, in their view, are simply objects to be manipulated to ensure their tenure in office. They play the game of political survival according to thoroughly corrupt "rules" -- as we see in the Congressional leadership; e.g., Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. They see not rocking the boat as the key to their political survival, and the citizens' interest be damned.
State Nullification and State Secession cannot succeed in eradicating the general corruption emanating from the federal establishment. Washington has almost infinite power to quash such initiatives, and would be sure to do so, mercilessly. But if the States try nonetheless, we could well see a full-blown civil war as the result.
The best option, it seems to me, is for the States to convene an Article V convention. If We the People cannot get the federal government back in hand, then our Liberty will be utterly extinguished. The federal government is operating far beyond the mandate -- and constraints -- of its constitutional charter, and is incapable of reforming itself. We the People must do the reforming, or it ain't gonna happen.
To me, if the American people have anything to fear, it is not an Article V convention. Fear the current corrupt status quo instead.
JMHO FWIW.
Thanks, Art, for posting the excellent listing of resources on this subject.
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