Posted on 04/23/2014 4:10:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Arizona’s Senate president is under fire from an unlikely source within his own political party: Sarah Palin.
The former vice presidential candidate took to Facebook on Tuesday to chastise Senate President Andy Biggs as the “only man standing in the way” of a vote on a measure to call an Article V Convention to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Palin notes that similar measures have already been approved in several states. But she said thanks to Biggs, a Gilbert Republican and leader of the GOP in the Senate, Arizona’s opportunities to approve SCR 1016 are rapidly dwindling. Legislatures in Alaska, Florida, Georgia and Alabama have all approved efforts calling for a Convention of States, and other states are still considering the option.
The Article V Convention measure was struck onto SCR 1016 in the House, where it was approved 31-24 and now awaits action in the Senate.
“Unless he budges, the session will run out, and the bill will actually die this year after thousands of hours of grassroots work and effort,” Palin wrote on Facebook. “Make no mistake, if that happens, these grassroots patriots will start over again next year and will continue as long as it takes. But I encourage everyone in Arizona to call this state senator and voice your objections to these Harry Reid-like tactics.”
“Tell him to allow this bill to come to a vote, and from now on, please only elect local leaders who support this effort,” Palin added.
As of roughly 5 p.m. Tuesday, Palin’s Facebook post has been shared over 1,100 times. And among the hundreds of comments on the post, many include the number to Biggs’ office in the Senate and his email address.
Some commentators expressed outrage that Biggs won’t allow the bill to proceed by urging a recall of the Senate president. Other accused Biggs of being a RINO, a “Republican in name only.”
“Ahh Mr. Biggs. . . . proving that some Republicans are more like Dems than they are like Conservatives,” wrote Damon Landschoot.
Biggs has a history of fighting against calls for constitutional convention. In 2012, the senator tried to defeat a similar Senate resolution by arguing that it could lead to a runaway convention where nearly any issue could be addressed, not simply to impose fiscal constraints such as limiting the increase of the federal debt.
She may be, but not publicly. And that's disturbing at this time because she really needs to get the word out before the 2014 elections.
There are no simple answers to this… and that just makes our loss all the more frustrating. There are, however, some undeniable truths that help us understand the dynamics at work behind our defeat, and that will inform us in the run-up to and during the next legislative session.
We simply have to adopt a new attitude. Politics is a game. Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Then you play again.
I am advised that Andy Biggs just barely won the AZ senate presidency this last term by one vote. It appears likely that his last-ditch alliance with the anti-Article V extremists of the John Birch Society against SCR1016 and against the will of the majority of the people of Arizona – as evidenced by its passage just last week in our House of Representatives – will most certainly assure his defeat in the next legislative session. And when he goes, so go his sycophants & psychophants – good riddance.
Regressives like Andy Biggs, whose reasoning on this particular issue is clouded by fear, cannot be allowed to continue preventing Arizona from taking her rightful place in the fight to return this nation to the ideals envisioned by our Founders.
We should constantly remind those who have been busy channeling Phyllis Shlafley’s decades-old paranoia, and haven’t had a chance to check the news lately, that many great conservative thinkers and leaders have recently joined us in support of one or both of the most popular conservative movements for an Article V Convention of States - the Citizens for Self-Governance Convention of States (COS), and the Compact for America Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA)... people like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, George Will, David Barton, Mike Lee, Sarah Palin and Alan West, among others... hardly a "Soros-funded globalist" in the bunch, and none of them members of the low-information crowd typically unfamiliar with the truth about our Founders' history.
Between now and the next legislative session, we will undoubtedly run across – actually we should actively seek out – those regular folks, initiates who have only heard the negative, anti-liberty, fear-mongering lies, misrepresentations and hate speech of the Birchers on this issue. We should tactfully suggest that they take a moment to read the plain language of Article V (A5), explaining that it specifically and deliberately assigns the power to propose amendments to the constitution equally to both Congress and to the States.
We must tell them that it’s only 143 words, and warn them ahead of time that it won’t tell them word-for-word, step-by-step how to do it… the Framers, as in so many other fundamental matters, didn’t believe that they had to spell it out for us… what it will tell them is that IT CAN BE DONE.
Once they understand the original intent of those words, all anyone needs is the courage and the trust that our Founders had in the American people, without neither of which, no one deserves the right to be considered a Constitutional Conservative.
A5 - http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/article-v.html
You're right on that point, absolutely. She was a little late to the game this time around, certainly too late for us here in Arizona. Frankly, it took a week of hounding her handlers to get her to examine the issue and take a stand. Had we only started on her earlier, everything might have been different... and who knows, now that she has waded into the issue at the state level - where she has most influence, by the way... after all, aren't all politics local? - maybe she'll start turning the screws on the national scene.
To be honest, most of us in Arizona who are active in either of these two conservative COS projects would prefer that the momentum originate and stay with the states. We figure that if Congress gets involved, they will try to control it, and we can all see how well that's working out for us in just about everything they touch.
If find the Bircher BS particularly troubling. Way too many freepers have picked it up. Although the recent frequency is lower, we still see freeper attempts to connect Article V supporters with Soros. We have a lot of notable talent in support of Article V; it is sure to increase.
I think some of the conservative reluctance to embrace Article V is related to cognitive dissonance. Simply put, an American dictatorship is felt to be a contradiction. It can't happen. It is an impossible inconsistency.
By refusing to accept the seriousness of our situation, one can stick to the comfortable and American belief in elections. Election of the right people is all that is needed, and that belief is consistent with our tradition.
OTOH, if one accepts the fact that Obama’s official conduct and power is closer to that of Hugo Chavez than Ronald Reagan, one has to decide what to do about it.
For us, there is one peaceful option, so it must be pursued. It is as simple as that.
This is very discouraging... but that’s the nature of the game, I guess. I’m new to this, and as is the case with most rookies, I expected victory right out of the box, especially after watching the successes in Georgia, Alaska and Florida.
What was the biggest surprise was what you call the “cognitive dissonance” of the Birchers. That’s the perfect description for it. To be able to look around at the political climate and still say with a straight face that the system is working as the Founders envisioned so just keep doing it is to either deliberately flout logic out of ignorance and/or obstinance, or it’s a complete failure to perceive reality in the first place, seeing instead some fabricated hallucination interwoven with a whispered narrative that only they can hear. It’s really creepy.
But, well be back, and we’ll be more experienced, more prepared. We’ll know who to engage and who to ignore. We did a lot of learning on the fly this time, especially the procedural stuff. Next time we’ll know all of that in advance, we’ll be able to anticipate events instead of always being back on our heels, scrambling to react to new “problems.”
I mean, in the grand scheme of things, given what we were up against, what we did manage to accomplish is amazing. The votes were there... had democracy triumphed, had we not been undercut by fear, distrust and arrogance, Arizona would be right there with the other Patriots.
Next time.
OK... gotta do something productive with the rest of the day. You guys here have been a terrific source of moral and tactical support, and I’ll not be a stranger. I posted another vanity update a bit ago, sort of a re-write of my last post here, but I’m still a little scattered and can’t find it... sheesh
L8r
I’m actually sitting right now in the Arizona Senate Gallery. I was sitting at a local library reading the latest News about the COS (Convention Of States). Mr BIG is holding up the vote and I’m part of the team trying to get it past him. Like Reid he just changed the rules AGAIN. Instead of a majority of the majority being needed you now need a majority of the whole Senate. Since my rep is the Senate Minority leader (Katie Hobbs District 24) I thought I might as well go downtown and make my case in person. I have a backpack with my computer I’m typing this with .( Nobody bothered to look in it! ).
A recess has now been called. Time to Freep!
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