[chesley]

All right. I agree with you diagnoses. But what is your prescription?

And remember, we have to be practical and realistic. Either a Democrat or a Republican will be President. The House and/or the Senate will be run by Democrats or Republicans.

Further, the number one priority is fiscal restraint, or creeping socialism. The number one priority is national survival. Tight national security against the Islamic world and world-view. Running neck-and-neck, and closely related-immigration. Not whether it is legal, or not, but the amount of it.

Neither Party is good on immigration, though the Rs are marginally better in their rhetoric. But the Dems are an utter disaster on national security and Islam.

OK. What realistic proposal do you have? 'Cause I'm as worried about the country as you are. Maybe more. These are not issues that I just discovered in the last few years; I've thought about them for decades. Although I will admit I severely underestimated the threat of a resurgent Islam.

[Dan Evans]

All right. I agree with you diagnoses. But what is your prescription?

First thing is to get someone with credentials interested in the idea. That would be hard because most people are in denial and they think the federal government can somehow be repaired. It would have to be a true conservative specializing in Constitutional law -- Ann Coulter maybe.

Then we would need to get the attention of state legislatures. It takes two-thirds of them to create a convention.

As far as the immediate elections are concerned. I'm not sure if it would a bad thing to have Congress and the White House controlled by different parties. That's what happened from 1994 to 2001 and the resulting political gridlock managed to keep taxes and spending increases reasonable.

But mostly we need to keep the idea alive by bringing it up whenever possible. If it comes down to the wire, no one blinks and the federal government is abolished the states will be free to form new allegiances. Most likely the blue states will immediately form new unions and the red states will be forced to do likewise to counter the threat.

I don't like these scenarios but it's better than the steady decline we see now. My hope would be that the liberals and neo-cons would respond pragmatically to the threat of a Constitutional Convention if they realize we are serious and it allows us to do some serious rollbacks. My fear would be that bogus promises would be made to force the states to back off.