How convenient. Congress controls the “top down” method of amending the constitution - and no Congress, whether controlled by dems of pubbies, can ever be expected to proposed amendments which will meaningfully curtail their power. According to your post, that same Congress has also passed legislation which purports to give themselves effective control over the “bottom-up” method, the constitutional convention. Can you in your wildest dreams conceive of a Congress like our current Congress allowing a convention to proceed to debate issues where their control is threatened? They would endlessly prevaricate and hedge and obfuscate, finding infinitely miniscule faults in the states’ petitions to frustrate the call for a convention, even if 100% of the states so petitioned Congress.
How can Congress purport to control BOTH methods. What if, instead, 2/3 of the states called for a convention and proceeded to fund and hold the convention, without federal representation, according to whatever rules the officers selected by that convention devised? Congress be damned. I do not fear this process, where whatever results must be ratified by 3/4 of the states.
Frankly, allowing Congress to control the convention process makes as much sense as it would have made for the founders to allow King George to control the original convention. If the imperial federal government rejected an amendmdent, proposed by a convention it did not control but ratified by 3/4 of the states, then it would indeed be time to lock and load, and start erecting gallows on the mall in D.C.
Would Congress attempt to use any and all means to prevent a conventon? Absolutely! This is why Judge Napolitano pointed out how critical the wording was for those state petitions. However, once the two-thirds threshold has been met, Congress must call a convention, and this was reinforced by a number of old Supreme Court decisions.
As far as the states doing it on their own, Article V forbids it. Congress must call the convention for it to be valid. Further, when the convention finishes its work, should the convention produce one or more amendments, Congress must decide whether the states should ratify by the Legislaive Option or the Ratifying Convention Option. This has also been reinforced by some old Supreme Court decisions.
The biggest and most serious threat in your post is that Congress will try to weasel out of doing its job in calling the convention. I know it will, because it's about power, not about Democrats or Republicans. But that's where Judge Napolitano's warning comes in -- the states must coordinate to dot all the i's and cross all the t's.