Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Constitutional Convention is Within Reach For Conservatives
Dignitas News Service ^ | July 17, 2014 | Paul M Winters

Posted on 07/17/2014 11:53:03 AM PDT by dignitasnews

Constitutional Convention

As the November 2014 elections draw closer, Republicans are fixated on taking control of the Senate and Democrats find themselves focused on picking out china patterns for a presumptive Hillary Clinton inaugural ball in 2017, conservatives should consider the fact that a Constitutional Convention is very much within reach in 2015. Once the votes are counted, the Republican Party may just control the needed number of statehouses across the country to invoke the rarely discussed provision set in Article V the US Constitution which requires Congress to call a convention of states to propose amendments. Better still for conservatives, the numbers just might be available to get more than a few of these passed. As an extra bonus, Congress would be obligated to call the convention and hold no power to limit its scope.

Article V of the Constitution provides two methods in which a constitutional convention may be called for. The first states that should two-thirds of both houses of Congress find themselves in agreement on a given issue, an amendment may be called. This of course, in the wisdom of the framers, is a very difficult prospect particularly given the current political climate. The second, however, is more realistic option in our times and as one surveys the political map on the state level, a viable option in 2015. In addition to the congressional option, should two-thirds of the states apply for a convention, Congress "shall call a convention proposing amendments."

Article V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. Because the constitutional convention method has never been called there are plenty of questions in regards to the logistics and procedure. That said, this was originally to be the only process in which the Constitution may be amended. It was only after a delegation led by Alexander Hamilton argued that Congress too should have the power to do so under certain circumstances. It was then proposed by James Madison to remove the States power to propose amendments, until George Mason voiced his opposition to this plan, arguing that if the national government were to ever become oppressive, the void of a state process would render the people helpless. Thus, the two-thirds options was worked drafted and approved.

The latest legitimate attempt of the state method was the Balanced Budget Amendment. This was a long and drawn-out process in which North Dakota first applied for the amendment in 1975, while Missouri became the 32nd state in 1983, but it lost momentum just when on the cusp of victory. Speed in politics is important and although it may be idealistic to believe a variety of states can accord with equal swiftness, given their differences in personality and procedure, it is a potentiality of such unique importance it is the duty of conservatives to organize and prepare to apply the needed pressure to conservative leaders within the various states to make this a priority and drive the debate. In the modern age of communication, there are less logistical hurdles to overcome and no legitimate reason this can not be accomplished in under 24 months. Many within conservative circles have advocated for such a direction, a leading voice in this movement being radio-host and writer Mark Levin.

PJMedia (via YouTube)

But to even get there we need the numbers. Although statehouse races garners far less attention than the House or Senate, it is on the state house level where the Tea Party influence has been most pronounced and their success has been key to the GOP’s current dominance in this arena. And because a Constitutional Convention is a state-driven process, conservatives will have greater representation. In the drive to thirty-four states, conservatives have good reason to engage in key races on a state level. To date, Republicans hold full control of 26 state houses, compared to only 18 under Democrat control. Five states are split between the state legislatures and state Senates, while Nebraska holds non-partisan elections for these offices, although this is widely considered “Republican country.”

What has Democratic Party officials particularly nervous is not just the race for the US Senate, but the very real possibility that Republicans, led by the insurgent Tea Party movement, will emerge from the primary season even stronger and together with establishment candidates will sweep to victory in a number of contested state house seats and have an insurmountable majority following November battles. Democrats are in danger of losing their slim majorities in eight key states, particularly West Virginia, Nevada and Colorado. Among the five states currently with a split in party majorities Kentucky, Iowa and New Hampshire appear to be leaning toward a GOP takeover. Should just these six states move over to the Republican column, they would hold full control of 32 state governments, with Nebraska giving them a virtual 33rd given their voting tendencies. This leaves seven states in which a lone upset moves one more state into the GOP column or agree to debate, discuss and vote on amendments to the constitution on a variety of issues of sincere concern to the American people.

constitutional convention

Should these numbers become a reality, conservatives will have the opportunity to truly open up the national debate on issues ranging from abortion, to guaranteeing the integrity of our elections, illegal immigration and an overhaul of our legal immigration system, taxation, health care as well as Constitutional rights as related to both free-exercise of religious liberty and self-defense. While the American public at large is often split on these issues, the Progressive-left opposition on these position are largely centered in urban strongholds on both coasts and New England. Should the 34 needed states file applications and amendments are then proposed, three-fourths of the states will need to ratify. That means 50.01 percent of the people within states need to agree to the measure. Taking another look at he map, if crafted properly there seems to be little that the Progressive elites of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles or San Francisco can do about it.

Progressive-liberalism has been able to infect our republic mainly due to the disproportionate power and influence of these media centers on our culture and the national discussion. As such, power has increasingly found it center in Washington DC. at the expense of individual liberty. Conservatives find themselves with a unique opportunity to restore "power to the people" without the obstruction of both the liberal intelligentsia and the feckless nature of Congress. With a strong turnout of conservatives in a handful of Republican leaning states, a Constitutional Convention is very much within reach.

By Paul M Winters Editor in Chief Dignitas News Service

Sources:

NationalArchives HarvardLaw USConstitution CNSNews MarkLevinCNSInterviewVideo PJMedia (via YouTube)


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: articlev; conservative; liberal; usconstitution
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-70 last
To: Publius

Recall the first CC was limited in scope, too. And that was promptly ignored as any limit would be here.


61 posted on 07/26/2014 10:00:16 PM PDT by arrogantsob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

Jefferson had nothing to do with the Constitution and did not understand it much or accept it. Marshall and Hamilton are the authorities on the meaning.


62 posted on 07/26/2014 10:02:01 PM PDT by arrogantsob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: nathanbedford

Not much there is actually true, but carry on.


63 posted on 07/26/2014 10:03:39 PM PDT by arrogantsob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Da Bilge Troll

They overestimated the intelligence of the People. That is clear from the way the electorate votes.


64 posted on 07/26/2014 10:05:55 PM PDT by arrogantsob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: Jagdgewehr

Thank You.

This is the type of insight the Republic needs.


65 posted on 07/26/2014 10:07:29 PM PDT by Rome2000
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Jagdgewehr
I wish for the return of the Constitutional Republic we were meant to be.

Let's be clear that this means the end of Universal Suffrage.

The Founders did not put a right to vote in the Constitution for a REASON.

The reason is that this nation was founded as a Republic, NOT a democracy.

Until the franchise is limited, we are no different than Venezuela.

Chavez, Obama,and Maduro are the fruits of Universal Suffrage.

The Same Reasoning, which will induce you to admit all Men, who have no Property, to vote, with those who have, for those Laws, which affect the Person will prove that you ought to admit Women and Children: for generally Speaking, Women and Children, have as good Judgment, and as independent Minds as those Men who are wholly destitute of Property: these last being to all Intents and Purposes as much dependent upon others, who will please to feed, cloath, and employ them, as Women are upon their Husbands, or Children on their Parents.

Depend upon it, sir, it is dangerous to open So fruitfull a Source of Controversy and Altercation, as would be opened by attempting to alter the Qualifications of Voters. There will be no End of it. New Claims will arise. Women will demand a Vote. Lads from 12 to 21 will think their Rights not enough attended to, and every Man, who has not a Farthing, will demand an equal Voice with any other in all Acts of State. It tends to confound and destroy all Distinctions, and prostrate all Ranks, to one common Level.

-John Adams

We arguably do not have free and fair elections.

Fraud is rampant and goes unpunished.

Republicans are the blue blood country club banker faction of the Washingtonians, and Democrats merely the communist faction of the Washingtonians.

It's us outside the Beltway against the Washingtonians from both parties.

It's time to stop looking to DC for solutions to the problems the degenerate sons of bitches in DC have created in the first place.

Its time to think about ways to accelerate the collapse because only then can the Republic be reset and the Franchise limited as the Founders intended.

Nothing comes from DC other than higher taxes and more restrictions on our freedoms.

European Kings and Queens moved their courts to different parts of their realms to benefit each region and avoid depleting it's resources , yet our masters in the political class remain entrenched in the EVIL city on the Potomac and extort trillions of dollars every year from the productive class.

The productive class are now all slaves to DC and the Federal apparatchiks in Maryland and Virginia.

The greatest threat to the Liberty and Prosperity of the productive class are not a bunch of demented ragheads in the middle east, but the Federal apparatus.

Ted Kennedy (Suffer in Hell you degenerate MF) not only managed to murder Mary Jo Kopechne but is responsible for the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which ensured that white non comsymps would be the minority in terms of future immigration to the USA.

Since nobody seems to have a clue in the GOP that this is a problem and much less intends to do anything about it, the war is lost and the collapse is inevitable.

The Washingtonians from both parties intend to steal everything not nailed down from those outside DC and then bug out under military protection when the collapse comes and the riots start.

An electorate that elected Clinton and Obama twice and gave algore the popular vote is no different than the Venezuelans and Cubans electing Chavez and Castro; stupid and dangerous.

It's all over but the shouting for the 1st American Republic, it is predictably self destructing due to the imposition of Universal Suffrage.

Honest Ape mortally wounded the Republic when he brutally attacked and murdered the sons of the Founders, the last 150 years has been merely death rattle.

“Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

- John Adams

66 posted on 07/26/2014 10:31:50 PM PDT by Rome2000
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: arrogantsob; All
"It was established to limit STATE governments and increase the power of the federal government."

With all due respect arragantsob, you've got the wires completely crossed as to why the Founding States made the federal Constitution. In fact, Judge Andrew Napolitano will take about 3 minutes to read the federal government's relatively short list of constitutional Article I, Section 8 powers to you.

Judge Napolitano & the Constitution

And the Supreme Court has officially clarified, in terms of the 10th Amendment, that any power that is not in the relatively short list of powers that Judge Napolitano just read to you is prohibited to the federal government.

”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.

67 posted on 07/27/2014 10:41:41 AM PDT by Amendment10
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: arrogantsob
In Federalist #40, James Madison disagrees with you.
68 posted on 07/27/2014 11:13:34 AM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: arrogantsob
"They overestimated the intelligence of the People. That is clear from the way the electorate votes."

What is the solution, then?

69 posted on 07/27/2014 2:17:44 PM PDT by Da Bilge Troll (Defeatism is not a winning strategy!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Amendment10

The reason the Constitutional Convention was called was to increase the powers of the Central Government and decrease the powers of the States. And those powers were given to the federal government. This is why States’ Righters like George Clinton tried to sabotage the CC. But the Constitution did just that - Article I, Section 10 removed most of the states’ powers to cause harm to the nation. The use of the phrase “explicitly confined to...” wrt federal powers was voted down. Even specifying certain powers does not limit the means of carrying those powers out. Hamilton’s essay on the constitutionality of the National Bank is the definitive description of constitutionality. He was the greatest lawyer of his day and the most familiar with and understanding of the Constitution, writing 2/3s of the Federalist.


70 posted on 08/15/2014 11:09:00 AM PDT by arrogantsob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-70 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson