Posted on 05/02/2015 1:35:55 PM PDT by Jacquerie
A couple of prominent conservatives have expressed concern over the possibility of a ‘runaway’ Article V state amendments convention. Such is their anxiety that runaway tyranny from Rome-on-the-Potomac pales in comparison to the possible horrors of the states getting together to relieve their people from oppression. Are these concerns fact based or irrational or somewhere in between?
An important, and likewise extra-congressional vestige of the federal system of 1787, and quite similar to an Article V state amendments convention in its constitutional foundation remains in force today. It is the familiar Electoral College (EC). Like the state amendments convention, the EC is also a specific grant of constitutional authority distinct from congress, courts and presidents. Both the EC and Article V convention are temporary, and neither can be made subservient to any branch of the government. This renders the EC and state amendments convention separate from, and superior to the three branches of government. The state amendments convention process is created by Article V; it is not a component of any of the three branches of government created by the first three articles. The limits to congressional involvement and duties are in Article V. Congress must call a convention upon applications from two thirds of the states, and determine the mode of ratification. That is all.
The EC is also loathed by liberals. Witness the National Popular Vote movement. The EC and state amendments convention processes represent end runs around liberals’ wholly owned government in Washington DC and media. The EC and an Article V convention are federal and therefore anti-democratic, which is why libs despise the EC and are working toward complete nationalization of presidential voting. Libs love democracy. Recall the 17th Amendment which turned ambassadors from the states into three-term, democratic and demagogic congressmen.
The EC and state amendments convention processes are federal remnants of a more perfect union that placed liberty preserving institutions ahead of fuzzy pablum populism, and democracy.
If you oppose a state amendments convention, do you also fear the Electoral College?
The EC is extra-congressional and completely controlled by the states. If the states are so wild and politically insane, why haven’t we had ‘runaway’ sessions of the EC? For whomever the states cast their votes is entirely up to the individual states. They can split their votes between Uniparty candidates or cast votes for Joe Blow down the street. States can modify their statutes such that their legislatures may determine for whom to vote with zero input from their citizens. The EC confab is a one-day event. Isn’t that dangerous? There is no subsequent meeting that requires approval of three fourths of attendees to implement the results. Why haven’t we experienced a runaway Electoral College?
Why hasn’t congress set down the rules the states and EC must follow? Answer: Congress has no more authority to participate in the deliberations of the EC than it does to participate in, or set the rules for an Article V state amendments convention.
No state EC delegation ever ‘ran away’ because the simple fact is that the duties of electors are defined by state statute. Replace the term ‘elector’ with ‘delegate,’ and you have a situation identical to that of an Article V amendments convention.
Delegates will serve their states. They will have no attachment to any statutory authority under the US.
Article V now, while we can.
To Article V proponents and opponents alike.
Ya mean we can’t have an amendment to send leftists Northwest Alaska to commune with the polar bears they are so concerned about? DRAT!
Imagine the delegates that California, New York, Illinois and Colorado for example would send to such a convention. Ordinary political means will no longer work for America. The Negro Community Organizer from Chicago has forever tipped the balance in favor of his coalition of invaders, blacks, Asians, Sodomites, criminals etc.. We are no longer the America we were even twenty years ago
The fear of a runaway convention is due to the runaway nature of its advocates who try to convince us to support it by loading it like a Christmas tree. Its agenda should have no more than 3 articles that fit on 1 sheet of paper.
1) Limit the role of the Judicial branch.
2) Limit the role of the Executive branch.
3) Limit the role of the Legislative branch.
Any attempt to address birthright citizenship or abortion or audit-the-FED will open it a hundred other issues, both issues where we agree and issues where we disagree.
Doesnt matter what amendments come out, each has to be ratified by 38 states. The “Equal Rights for Women” or whatever they called it was passed out of Congress but was never ratified. Same with others. Even if you get a “runaway” convention, the ratification process is a brake on it.
True. But they will be balanced by delegates from Alabama, Texas, South Carolina and Kansas. An Amendments Convention will be representative of America at that time. Will conservative delegates have to contend with progressive delegates? Certainly. But the final product will be representative of all the states.
You can immediately tell the lie of the National Popular Vote scheme by the fact that any state today can award their Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote, but they won't unless they can guarantee 270 votes first.
No state is willing to stand on principle and give their vote to the winner independently.
That should tell you something about motive.
-PJ
-PJ
As I remember delegates would be in proportion to the populations of their respective states. No thanks. We would end up with a totally socialist government.
<>But the final product will be representative of all the states. <>
Exactly. If we are to once again be self-governing, if we are to be once again a compound republic composed of fifty free republics, then whatever is ratified by three fourths of state conventions or legislatures should be in the constitution.
and will be ignored like the rest of the Constitution
<>As I remember delegates would be in proportion to the populations<>
Did you actually read my short vanity post?
mark
States will be the convention attendees. WY, CA, and the other forty-eight will therefore have an equal number of votes.
The check on any runaway convention is that each of the proposed amendments must be approved by 75% of the state legislatures. The convention is NOT the approval authority.
Two questions:
Who will choose said delegates?
And...
What is the track record of those choosing the delegates at keeping their own oaths to support and defend the Constitution we've already got? In other words, what kind of confidence can We the People have that these delegates will be in any way qualified to tinker with history's greatest document of human self-government?
I don’t even trust Mark Levin. One of the amendments he proposed would enshrine judicial supremacy in the Constitution, which is a signally destructive notion.
Are you stupid?
A proposal for 3/5 of the states to override a Supreme Court decision is judicial supremacy?
No wonder we have such an uphill battle on this Article V process. People like you who can’t read above a fifth grade level.
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