Posted on 08/19/2015 4:52:41 PM PDT by cotton1706
One reason Donald Trump is finding support for his presidential bid is that so many people are fed up with Washington and its inability to get things done--that is, get things done the way the fed-up people think they should.
Some of that sentiment is also driving a reexamination of an Article V Convention of the States.
Most Americans know that the Founding Fathers tried to set up a system of checks and balances, but that issue is usually discussed in relation to the three branches of the federal government imposing a check on each other.
But Article V of the U.S. Constitution creates a check and balance between the states and Washington.
If two-thirds of the states apply to Congress for a convention for the purpose of amending the Constitution, Congress must convene it. If the convention of the states is able to agree upon a constitutional amendment, and if three-fourths of the states ratify the amendment, it would become part of the Constitution.
There is a growing interest among state legislators who believe that Washington has ignored some of its constitutional responsibilities and far exceeded its allowable reach with respect to the states. An Article V convention might restore some of the historic balance.
The country's top expert on an Article V Convention is Rob Natelson, who used to be a law professor teaching constitutional law. He is now with the Independence Institute in Colorado.
(Excerpt) Read more at yourhoustonnews.com ...
ping
Not in our lifetimes. It would be a zoo.
Recent polling shows the support for banning abortion (with exceptions) and for a Trump-like plan on immigration both approach 2/3rds support from the American people.
I expect a balanced budget amendment could garner that kind of support as well.
The states as a whole are more conservative than the federal government. They should use their power to take back power grabs done by the executive branch and the Supreme Court.
“I expect a balanced budget amendment could garner that kind of support as well.”
Term limits too! That and a balanced budget amendment were both my desires years ago. What a difference we would have today had we had them all this time.
We were very close in the Missouri legislature last session. Passed the Senate overwhelmingly and came within hours at the end of the session of passing the House. I fully expect it to pass this time.
TFTP
(thanks for the ping)
If those in Washington don’t follow the constitution now, what makes anyone think they will adhere to any Convention of States.
“Not in our lifetimes. It would be a zoo”.
Exactly.
I don’t believe it will be a zoo. There will be some issues the first time through but once done I believe we will using Article V often to correct the mess an immoral and unjust political class have fostered on us. If we fail to use Article V I see only two options unless we are incredibly lucky, consent to enslavement or revolution.
Conventions and a new Constitution mean nothing if elected officials and bureaucrats do not feel bound by them.
An Amendment created by the delegates of the Convention of States to repeal the 17th Amendment and return the Election of our Senators to the State Houses is mandatory IMHO to restore the balance of power to where the Founders intended...
I know why it’s there, the question is who will enforce the Constitution. The document is neither supported nor defended by those in Washington. I’m no longer naive enough to think otherwise.
“A republic madam, if you can keep it.” What did Ben Franklin mean by his famous retort at the close of the 1787 Federal Convention? Here’s a clue: Voting every two years is insufficient effort to keep a republic.
Franklin and his convention peers knew that unlike tyrannies and absolute monarchies, republics required the people’s active participation. This wasn’t a new concept; our Framers were well aware of Roman and Greek republics, all of which amended and improved their unwritten constitutions as changing times warranted. It was from their love of liberty and dread of consolidated power the Roman Republic spanned 450 years. They kept their republic.
While the Framers structured the best government they thought possible for their times, they knew their plan of 1787 must be likewise amenable to change. Article V provided for the peaceful change they envisioned for a free people. Make Ben smile.
Over the next one hundred forty plus years until the New Deal, Americans applied the Framers’ Article V gift to amend their constitution over twenty times. We refined existing national powers and expanded individual rights. Keep the republic.
Yet, by the New Deal, Washington DC increasingly assumed powers not remotely granted by the Sovereign People. So many wholesale judicial amendments to settled constitutional clauses were made that they required the new term, “living and breathing.”
Why, since the New Deal, did the people relinquish their God given and Article V right to define the breadth and depth of their government and largely turn such decisions over to lawyers in black robes?
Through disuse, Americans had forgotten the second amendatory process within Article V, which provided for an end run by the people and their states around the Washington DC elites. Having never been used in modern times, Americans were not familiar with convening by state delegations. They were further informed that any attempt to keep the American Republic by the state amendatory process was dangerous, that it could easily runaway and spoil an emerging Scotus designed social justice Utopia.
Consider:
Should employers be required to recognize Labor Unions as per the National Labor Relations Act of 1935?
Should the scope of the Commerce Clause include intra-state commerce as per the Wickard v. Filburn decision of 1942?
Should there be a wall of separation between Church and State?
Is there really a 9th Amendment right to abortion?
Can the Executive branch assume Article I legislative powers?
If so, and in order to keep our republic, these issues and so many more should have been decided along the way by the American people through Article V. Had this been done over the decades, America would not be on the verge of a police state. Article V wasn’t designed to be used solely in extremis situations such as the runaway Obama tyranny; it was and remains to this day a fundamental tool to secure liberty.
Reverse the tyranny. Keep the American Republic. Article V NOW!
“If so, and in order to keep our republic, these issues and so many more should have been decided along the way by the American people through Article V. Had this been done over the decades, America would not be on the verge of a police state. “
I agree with this 100%. However, history is replete with examples of what complacency begats and it isn’t pretty. I don’t much like the term democracy but the “cycle of democracy” By Alexander Tyler describes common outcomes.
Imagine the outrage from the left when they realize there is a higher earthly power than the institutions they corrupted.
are you kidding? every left wing lunatic cause from gay marriage, open borders, abortion on whim, reparations, etc will overwhelm any good that we try to do.
you’d opening something you cannot control that will end badly for you, me and america.
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