I hope other readers consider that when Mark Levin is being denigrated for his great contributions to the movement to advance Article V, the ideas which are being derogated are those advanced by the father of the Constitution, James Madison.
Posted on 10/01/2016 1:50:02 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Number IV of a four-part series.
In response to executive abuses by King George III, our early state constitutions were overly democratic and featured legislatures that casually breached the inadequate walls that separated them from the judicial and executive branches. From a review of pertinent numbers of The Federalist in the second and third squibs, it is evident that the 1787 US Constitution was written with eye toward better defining and checking the legislative power. That Constitution has been justly and unjustly amended many times over the course of the past century such that today, the executive and judicial branches casually usurp the rightful powers of congress and the states on a regular basis. Great Article I powers and more have fallen into the hands of a president and a majority of supreme court justices. Free government under the existing, de facto Constitutional structure is impossible.
Having established that the structure of government is the sovereign people’s first line of defense against usurpations, we can examine Levin’s suggested amendments with clearer vision and sense of purpose. If ratified, his amendments will restore the balance of power between the people, the states, and a newly invigorated federal system of government.
Repeal the 17th Amendment. The first step is to return the states to their rightful and necessary place in the senate. Mark explains in Chapter Three, “An Amendment to Restore the Senate,” how progressives sold the snake-oil of democracy to justify the 17th Amendment. If a little democracy is good, lots of it must be great. The critical nature of the Framers’ senate design was of no consequence.
The 17th was a mistake; it must go. If no other liberty amendment is ratified, THIS amendment is essential, and may just be sufficient, to restore free government. It returns the all-important structure of congress back to the Framers’ design. As component members of the republic, the presence of the states as political coequals in our lawmaking body is as vital as the presence of representatives of the people. Post 17th repeal senators will not only attend to their employers like their pre-1913 ancestors, Levin would empower state legislatures to recall their senators on a two-thirds vote. A tight state leash on one branch of congress will minimize the tendency of senators to “go native” soon after their arrival in Washington, DC.
The effects of repealing the 17th will be staggering. No longer will anti-10th Amendment lawyers find seats on the federal bench. No longer will unfunded mandates burden state taxpayers. No longer will at-large, statewide, self-serving, popularly derived politicians called senators jump at every beck and call of a demagogic president. Wave adios to open borders and the hostile insertion of islamists into innocent communities.
All good things are possible with repeal of the 17th Amendment. Free government is impossible without it.
Clipping Scotus. In open violation of separation of powers, a very small body of men and women exercise not only an absolute veto over all state and federal laws as well as state constitutions, but in the process often effectively rewrite statutory law, plus the supreme law of the land, on their own.
• When scotus rewrites laws allowed under the Constitution, it usurps the Article I power of congress.
• When scotus assumes legislative power not granted anywhere in the Constitution, it is an act of tyranny.
The Framers’ checks on scotus in the form of an always present threat of impeachment/conviction, and congress’ Article III authority to regulate its appellate jurisdiction are dead letters. Just as the only limit on kings who claimed divine right was death, the only practical check today on scotus is the natural (or unnatural) death of its judges. No republic can long withstand an unchecked, near-authoritarian branch of government.
In Chapter Four, Levin would empower congress, upon three-fifths vote in the House and Senate, to override a majority opinion of the scotus. Likewise, so may the states, by three-fifths vote, override a majority opinion of the scotus. This power is wisely limited to twenty-four months after the date of the opinion. Knowing that the states and a newly federalized congress stand ready to look over their shoulders, the wild social justice predispositions of scotus are certain to subside.
States Directly Amend the Constitution. Chapter Nine. States need not apply to congress. While Article V itself is not amended, its three-fourths threshold to ratify proposed Constitutional Amendments is effectively lowered to two-thirds. As Mark relates, the statists have “commandeer(ed) the sovereignty of the states and citizenry.” While amending the Constitution through Article V was purposely made ponderous in order to set our compact above factional or majoritarian impulses, Article V has proved to be an inadequate means, in the face of accelerating statism, to secure free government. As constituent members of the republic who are far closer to the sovereign people than congress, our states, via their legislatures, are ideally positioned to exercise the measured and careful reflection and judgment so necessary to keep a newly federalized republic within its Constitutional bounds.
Chapter Ten. The last, grand addition to federalism is empowerment of the states to override congressional statutes and executive branch regulations by three-fifths vote within twenty-four months of passage. Nameless, faceless bureaucrats in Washington, DC basements might have second thoughts should they attempt to shut down entire industries or decide to enrich insiders through subsidies to losing enterprises like green energy.
The proposals herein constitute a necessary restoration and expansion of federalism. Recall from the Introduction to this series that the Virginia Plan of government submitted by Governor Randolph to the Federal Convention proposed congressional authority to veto all state laws. This was a reasonable, yet ultimately rejected response to the imbalance of power as it existed between the states and the Continental Congress. As opposed to the new compact of 1787, its careful balance of power long ago flipped in favor of an ever-decreasing number of unaccountable men and women safely ensconced in Washington DC.
We are not used to, and many Americans will be initially uncomfortable with, expanded state oversight of a super-federalized government. But, as Mark explains, his proposals “would help relieve the intensifying dissatisfaction with congressional and bureaucratic interventions in the daily lives of the people.” The people’s attention to their state governments will be reinvigorated as they come to realize the new place of their states in an expanded federal system.
Scotus will not always have the final say in law. Its decisions will be tempered by the realization that the people, through their states, stand ready to judge the judges. As for congress, Mark writes that it will work within “a more rational process in lieu of the current autocratic disorder, and extend republicanism in contrast to its ongoing contraction.”
Just as the federal convention of 1787 dealt with an imbalance of power that, if left unchecked, would ultimately destroy the union, so today must new patriots reverse the rot, and provide the means for the sovereign people to secure their unalienable rights. The Article V process of our Framers was adequate until 1913. Suffice to say that since the New Deal, the frequency of assaults on our compact and the liberty it secured have accelerated. Society is bludgeoned every June with ever more destructive social justice scotus decisions; every week we are subject to God-only-knows executive branch diktats and regulations that have become so common as to not even earn a passing mention in the evening news.
Experience informs us that the processes in Article V are too slow to deal with galloping tyranny. Reason commands us to establish new, expedient, yet prudent means to arrest the tyranny and secure free government.
Mark Levin’s Liberty Amendments do just that.
We are the many; our oppressors are the few. Be proactive. Be a Re-Founder. Join Convention of States.
Article V ping!
I fear that it will take an even bigger national crisis before this starts getting traction.
BUMP!
Cucks and Never Trumpers desperate for relevancy. Too late, Levin! You had your chance, but put your own interests ahead of America's.
You may very well be right. I view the rise of Trump as the expression of widespread disgust with government as it is. I hope this disgust can be redirected next year toward an Article V convention.
This country is quickly heading for replacement of the Constitution with something else. We’ve already heard blacks and feminists calling for this, who believe it is a racist, sexist, et al., document designed to oppress. And it won’t even be called the Constitution because these disaffected groups think it has a lot of baggage. A Clinton win in November will hasten this. Mark my words, in a Hillary Presidency there will be a commission, like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, which will conduct a show trial of dead white males and draft a new ruling document. Levin and all the #NeverTrumpers can preach conservative principles and Constitutional conservatism, and they will viewed as Apartheid supporters (and under the government will eventually be arrested for subversion).
If they really wanted to preserve the Constitution, they should’ve protected the country from the flood from the third world. A Constitution is created out of the people and is antecedent to the formation of the nation. It expresses their values and virtues. You supplant the people with a new people hold radically different values and they no longer understand or appreciate these values and the expressions of these highest ideals, summon bonum, in a document (the Constitution).
And the irony of ironies is the #NeverTrumpers and anti-Trump conservatives, e.g., Ryan, Kasich, Bush, et al., are for flooding this country with peoples hostile to these conservative ideals and will support the evisceration of these ideals from government.
Let’s Roll
Ryan, Kasich and Bush are not conservatives.
And once again Levin is spot on. Progressives are the problem, the lefties are easy to spot.
Sorry, Mike, but the term “Liberty Amendment” has already been taken.
In 1944, Willis E. Stone, an industrial engineer and polemicist proposed an amendment to the Constitution to abolish the federal income tax, which he dubbed the Liberty Amendment. By 1962, Stone was working full-time to pass this amendment as the chairman of the Liberty Amendment Committee of the USA. By 1982, when Stone retired, nine states had ratified the Liberty Amendment.
The COS simulated convention went very well, and can be viewed, along with several descriptive columns at the COS website.
If we act, there is hope.
I have read some of that, it does offer hope and encouragement. It brightens a very bleak election cycle.
Levin's book was published several years ago - long before Trump thought about running. If you think Trump is some kind of savior, you're dreaming. Even Reagan couldn't do it by himself.
After the November election, our efforts carry on in support of the Article V Convention of States. Our federal government is broken. The only peaceful way to fix it is Article V.
It's been awhile since I've posted these links, so here goes:
We are fighting for the soul of our Sacred Republic. The terror attacks and the demands for a "new Constitution" are signs of a quickening in this battle.
For those who think the Article V process is too risky, I ask, "What other options do you see?"
To summarize from a previous post by GraceG:
1. Elect More Republicans - Failed due to RINO/Uni-party confluence.
2. Article V Convention of States to propose Amendments - Needed to try to take power from the federal government back to the states and reel in the federal leviathan.
3. State Nullification - Last ditch effort to try to take power back from the federal monster, though by this point it may be too late.
4. State Secession - Could either end up peaceably like the breakup of the Czechoslovakia in 1993 or a brutal:
5. Civil War II like the first one.... The longer we wait on #2, the more likely #3, then #4 and finally #5. .
So, do we do nothing and just wait for # 5?
Quick review: We need 34 states to pass an application, then Congress shall, by law, call a Convention of States as soon as it receives applications from 2/3 of the State Legislatures. That's 34 states. (So far both legislative chambers of 6 States, {Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee}, have completely passed their resolutions and 36 state legislative chambers or bodies have filed or passed resolutions.) Amendments are proposed and voted on at the convention. Each Amendment must be ratified by 3/4 of the states in order to become part of the US Constitution. That's 38 states.
"There are far more political and legal constraints on a runaway convention than on a runaway Congress." - Robert Natelson
Most FReepers are aware of these links, but I post anyway for review and for people new to Article V. It is our responsibility to make Article V the most understood aspect of the US Constitution.
****Please see this summary video from Alabama first: Convention of States - Alabama Way to go Alabama! A great introduction!
***Another good introduction video Convention of States: The Plan to Restore America
***For the Young People Overview of the COS Project at Washington Freedom Summit Laura Fennig, a COS Grassroots Coordinator, describes the COS Project plan and how you can get involved!
Rep. Bill Taylor introduces a Convention of States
Convention of States Live! with Mike Farris
The Case for an Article V Convention. Great explanation of an Article V convention to the Massachusetts State Legislature.
**** Convention of States Lots of information here.
Learn about the Convention of States The Problem, the Solution and the Strategy
Call a Convention A call for a Convention of States
Missouri state senator delivers amazing testimony (video) Reasoned speech on why we need an Article V Convention.
Article V Project to Restore Liberty Another good source.
Convention of States model Resolution
A Summary of Mark Levin’s Proposed Amendments by Jacquerie
Chapter 1 of Mark Levin’s Book, The Liberty Amendments
Mark Levin, Constitution Article V, and the Liberty Amendments
Mark Levin: "The Liberty Amendments" - Complete Sean Hannity Special + other Links
List of Mark Levin You Tube Videos
Citizens for Self-Governance: Convention of States Project Youtube hub - Lots of educational videos here
Mark Levin Article V, Liberty Amendments youtube video hub
Three hour video of C-Span interview with Mark Levin
*** Mark Levin's ALEC Speech, Dec 4, 2014
Gaining Steam? Nearly 100 Lawmakers Descend on Mount Vernon to Talk Convention of States The beginning.
Curing Federal Dysfunction by Constitutional Amendment: A Primer Professor Rob Natelson
Our American Constitution, Article V Rob Natelson's Article V articles
We can fight the uniparty! States, the Natural Second Party by Jacquerie
Convention to Propose Amendments to the United States Constitution
The Other Way to Amend the Constitution: The Article V Constitutional Convention Amendment Process
Friends of Article V Convention Links
The Indiana Statute that will Govern their Delegates
Congress' Present Duty to Call a Convention:
Congress' Present Duty to Call a Convention. (Part I)
Congress' Present Duty to Call a convention. (Part II)
Congress' Present Duty to Call a Convention. (Part III)
Congress' Present Duty to Call a Convention. (Part IV)
Congress' Present Duty to Call a Convention. (Part V)
Congress' Failure to Call an Amendments Convention. (Part VI)
Ulysses at the Mast: Democracy, Federalism, and the Sirens' Song of the Seventeenth Amendment by Jay Bybee. Repeal the 17th! Shorter Abstract here: Ulysses at the Mast, one page Abstract
****For those of you that still have doubts about the Article V process, please review: Responses To Convention Of States Opposition My initial concerns were resolved after reading these articles. My attitude now is Go For It!
Sarah Palin: Debunking the myths of a Convention of States
A Single-Subject Convention Addresses the "runaway convention" fear.
John Birch Society Denies Its History and Betrays Its Mission The original Birchers were for an Article V Convention.
Update: Convention of States by the numbers The current State count
Convention of States Gaining Momentum
***Indiana Statute - Duties of Article V Convention Delegates A good example for other states and one of the safeguards.
****Proposing Constitutional Amendments by a Convention of States - An Article V Handbook for State Legislators An important resource.
****State Initiation of Constitutional Amendments: A Guide for Lawyers and Legislative Drafters The Bible on Convention of States
**** State Legislators Article V Caucus State Legislators, Join up at this site!
Most State Legislatures are in session now. Send this list of links to your State Representatives and Senators here: Contact your State Legislators.
Sample Letter to state Representatives regarding the Convention of States Project and also, Talking Points.
Excellent Article V Letter to a State Assemblyman by Jacquerie
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke.
Let’s all work together to get this going!
I hope other readers consider that when Mark Levin is being denigrated for his great contributions to the movement to advance Article V, the ideas which are being derogated are those advanced by the father of the Constitution, James Madison.
Art in Idaho —> The keeper of the Free Republic Article V index!
No one cares.
Levin put himself before the movement.
It's horrible when that happens but he - and you - have no one to blame but Levin.
Put all that to one side and focus on November 8. If Trump wins, your dream could come true. If Trump loses, it’s all effete sophistry.
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