Free Republic

Among the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation was the near impossibility of amending them to meet pressing needs regarding taxation and commerce. In 1787-1788, the lower threshold to amend the Constitution per Article V overcame Anti-Federalist reluctance to form a new Union. From the time the federal convention sent the draft Constitution to the Confederation Congress and states, many Anti-Federalists demanded a second convention, preferably before federal elections and the establishment of a new government. Not only the Anti-Federalists, but few Federalists were entirely satisfied with the Constitution as written. The difference was that Federalists were satisfied that Article...

The 17thAugust 9, 2024 | Sundance Machiavelli said,“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. A prescient and oft repeated quote that is pertinent to the situation.When our founders created the system of government for our constitutional republic, they built in layers of protection from federal control over the lives of people in...

During a recent hearing for an Article V measure under consideration by the New Hampshire House, an opponent testified, “Are we of the same character as the people in the late 1700s who fought a revolution against the British? I don’t think we are…We should be thanking our lucky stars that we have [a Constitution] that’s as good as it is, and we should not try to change it at all.” Are we really so morally inferior to our forebears that we can’t be trusted to amend our Constitution? This position has, as its cornerstone, the assertion that the delegates...

It’s the Article V opponent’s favorite scare tactic: “This has never happened before…we can’t possibly know what the delegates will do! They could rewrite the entire Constitution.” [Cue ominous music.] In fact, the states have met in convention dozens of times, and none of these meetings exceeded its mandate, including the Constitutional Convention of 1787. These folks are misinformed…or they hope you are. Columnist Dick Evans marked the 90th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition on December 5 with a guest column in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, “When volunteer lawyers saved us from Prohibition.” Evans pulls back the curtain to...

"It's going to require us working in our individual states using the tools that the Founding Fathers gave us to be able to take power away from DC and return it back to the American people to make sure that the incentives are to produce good government rather than self serving government," the governor said. the Florida Legislature is going to be certifying a series of amendments constitutional reforms under Article Five of the Constitution that will rein Washington in and that will hold Washington accountable." "We're in a great spot, because people look to us for leadership on a...

Use it or lose it. Article V opponents believe America is too corrupt to be trusted with a Convention of the States. They believe We The People fulfilled Ben Franklin’s fears and are no longer fit for self-government. If true, it also means we don’t have any business voting.Thanks to our collective failure to demand Article V Conventions of the States when necessary, We The People slowly, over decades, relinquished our sovereign authority to Scotus.I challenge anyone to explain the practical limits of the Supreme Court of the United States. On paper our system provides mutual checks, but what of...

As I recall from Gibbon, the Western Roman Empire went out with more of a whimper than a bang. By the time of Alaric and his Visigoths in 410 AD, Rome was so corrupt and weak there was little to stand in their way. In broad strokes it is fair to say that Roman society declined simultaneously with government. Long before the fall, Roman republican citizenship was a precious possession, a jewel of unsurpassed value. As such it was held closely and kept in short supply, for among other privileges, the Roman citizen wasn’t taxed. He was exempt from the...

Independence Day makes Progressives squirm. They despise the principles of the American Revolution. If they could, their scotus judges would gut the Declaration as thoroughly as they have the Constitution. To them, our Noble Declaration, this expression of God-given reason subverts social justice; they are right. Since the Declaration is indeed hostile to their moral relativism, the Left has long attempted to minimize our founding to a fuzzy faith in the people. The “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and “all men are created equal,” translates in their Marxist minds as widespread democracy accompanied with equal...

Leftist citizens of the world are uncomfortable at the sight of unabashed and self-confident patriots celebrating the founding of a nation dedicated to undeniable truths. Tough. Let the micro-aggressions roll as we stand athwart the progressive junking of all that is good and decent. On our nation’s 150th anniversary in 1926, Republican president Calvin Coolidge gave a speech in which he responded to the progressive wave that muddied the minds of the nation. Only thirteen years after the passage of the destructive 16th and 17th Amendments, Coolidge deftly reminded Americans not to discard principles that had served the nation...

In 1776, Great Britain’s American colonists revolted in response to George III’s corruption of the British constitution. The twenty-seven indictments of him in our Declaration detailed his assaults. Americans didn’t have an Article V or its equivalent to peacefully secure the rights enjoyed by Englishmen in England. Similarly, 21st century America is witness to a dying Constitution in which its open corruption is the subject of endless opinion columns and appeals. Article V opponents curiously admonish Article V supporters to “enforce the Constitution we have.” Through the election of better Representatives, Senators, and Presidents, they say, is the road to...

The Golden Age of Virtue, which Article V opponents attach to our early republics, never existed.This isn’t to say the literature and political writings by gentry and revolutionary leaders of the day did not appeal to virtue. After Benjamin Franklin wrote, “only a virtuous people are capable of freedom,” he warned that without virtue, people are doomed to ever more oppressive masters. Similarly is John Adams’ famous, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”1 We read these reminders, especially those of John Adams on a regular...

Among the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation was the near impossibility of amending them to meet pressing needs regarding taxation and commerce. In 1787-1788, the lower threshold to amend the Constitution per Article V overcame Anti-Federalist reluctance to form a new Union.From the time the federal convention sent the draft Constitution to the Confederation Congress and states, many Anti-Federalists demanded a second convention, preferably before federal elections and the establishment of a new government.Not only the Anti-Federalists, but few Federalists were entirely satisfied with the Constitution as written. The difference was that Federalists were satisfied that Article V was...

I am at a loss to understand why the many patriots who defend the natural right of self-defense in the Second Amendment often do not extend this fundamental right to society.Perhaps it’s because those who occupy the heights of media, entertainment, academe and government over-emphasize individual rights. They do so without regard to the effect their expansive view of personal rights (typically so-called “human rights”) has on societal well-being.Reason rejects a supposed individual right if it harms society.People gather together in political society to defend themselves. As John Locke wrote, “the first and fundamental natural Law, which is to govern...

Following the release of President Joe Biden’s budget proposal, House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Jodey Arrington, R- Texas, is proposing a means for voters to have a say about rising debt and soaring inflation.Arrington introduced a resolution calling for an Article V convention of states. More than the required two-thirds of states previously called for either a fiscal responsibility amendment or a balanced budget amendment in the 1970s. Arrington’s legislation says, Congress "appears to have failed in its constitutional duty to count applications and call a ‘convention for proposing amendments.’" He introduced a similar measure last year, but now Republicans...

Not only did Locke’s philosophy call for our 1776 revolution, it reaches out to us today . . . but with a twist. Where Locke gave little attention to the nuts and bolts of how a community goes about restoring free government after its dissolution, our Framers provided the solution in Article V of their Constitution.1Locke didn’t conceptualize free government as either a contract or compact. If governed and governors are equal and interchangeable, as they must be in a republic, trust in one another is essential. He reasoned that “trust” was the best term to describe the relationship between...

Can an extensive nation keep free government and avoid centralization? In 1787-1788, the Anti-Federalists didn’t think so and the Federalists couldn’t be sure. Charles de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755) wrote in The Spirit of the Laws, “It is natural for a republic to have only a small territory; otherwise it cannot long subsist. In an extensive republic, the public good is sacrificed to a thousand private views.” Only in small republics, ideally of the Greek city-state size, are private interests and abuses minimized and the general welfare of the public is better understood and within the reach of every citizen.1Free...

Progressives Blow Up the Framers’ Constitution.Despite the lessons of history, Progressives promote ever more democracy, which, unless tempered and limited, is like turning one’s household over to the majority rule of teenagers. Is this household arrangement fair? Sure. It is also idiocy which no parent would consider. A senate of the states and not the parchment barriers of the Constitution stood athwart democratic rule by social justice emotions little different from those of the typical teenager.What was the 17th Amendment (17A) supposed to do? The post-17A senate was to respond to the people’s needs and free the senate from corruption...

Progressives Blow Up the Framers’ Constitution.In continuance of the Senate of the States series the next three squibs leave the Federal Convention and visit the decades leading to the destructive 17th Amendment (17A).The 17A triggered a cascade of stunning downwind consequences perhaps only second to the immediate post-Civil War amendments. As opposed to the 13th – 15th Amendments which reset society, the 17A reset our republican governing form. Overnight, the 17A transformed the Framers’ exquisite compound democratic/federal structure into a democratic form deadly to republics.1Why the 17th Amendment? What enormous forces convinced the people, states and congress to trade a...

Rush Limbaugh spent his life advocating for liberty and defending the rights of American citizens. He encouraged his millions of followers to get involved in politics and make their voices heard at the local, state, and national levels. One of the ways he urged his listeners to get involved was by joining the Article V movement. But those who oppose the Founders' solution to federal overreach have launched a disinformation campaign attacking both Rush and Convention of States Action President Mark Meckler. In a recent post on social media, Montana State Senator Theresa Manzella claims that Mark lied about Rush's...

@JosephFordCotto Some conservatives claim that a convention of states will "restore the Constitution to its former glory" and "defeat leftist tyranny." In reality, if there were any such convention, leftists would commandeer it, obliterating free speech and whatever remains of free assembly.