Highlights:
Our condition is urgent, and if left untreated it will be the end of our republic.
The people who created the mess will not fix it.
We must restore Constitutional republicanism.
We must rebalance the government, without novelty and return to the Framers’ original purpose.
We must have the courage to expect and confront the statists’ counterattack.
From these points, I expect Mark’s new book to propose a peaceful uprising of the people via their state legislatures. That means a constitutional convention to reestablish, first among other goals, a return to a Senate of the States.
Reform will not emerge from Washington. If we are to peacefully save what remains of our freedoms and regain what was lost, it is time for the States to call an Article V Constitutional Convention. If Congress does not head it off on its own to consider a single amendment, repeal of the 17th, we have little to lose. Our consolidated government ignores our unalienable rights, separation of powers and is arming itself to put down mass confrontation. If Congress ignores the threat and the States convene a convention, we risk no more than where we are already headed, a consolidated government of unlimited powers bent on creating a perfect social justice Utopian hell.
We have the means to save our society and lives; let’s use them. Together, with the help of God, we just might save these United States.
Yes, the media, rats and rinos will come down hard on an amendment to repeal the 17th. So what? Gee, will they start to call us names? When was the last time we set the terms of the debate? The last consistent time was during the Ronald Reagan era. Today we get an occasional reprieve from, for instance, Senators Rand Paul or Ted Cruz. In the course of defending this amendment, we would educate a couple generations of Americans purposely kept ignorant of the magnificent bequest of our ancestors, the Constitution. This is an idea that conservatives should flock to.
Imagine a Senate composed of people who don’t give a rip what the left-media say about them. Imagine a Senate immune from popularity polls and whatever spews daily from Obama or Chrissy Mathews. Imagine a Senate that flips the bird to a President who even considers anti-10th Amendment radicals to the federal bench. Would such a Senate put up with an EPA or HHS that pushes their States around?
There is an easier way. The Democrats used psychologists and sociologists to win the last Presidential election. We used political scientists to lose it. We have to study psychology and sociology and put them to our use. No, I am not a Sociologist or Psychologist.
The majority of individual states nowadays want the same thing as the majority of individual voters....as much pie from Uncle Sam as their representatives can send them.
It's all about the Benjamins.
I would say the 16th and 17th need a stake thru the heart. the evil twins of progressive amendments to the USC must be abolished.
The best way to remedy the current untenable situation is to break all bonds with the US Govt completely via secession. Everything else is BS.
I am so sick of people that say,”It can’t be done!” I am sure many of those that revolted against the crown were told the same thing. The status quo is not acceptable and we have no other choice but to change it.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." --Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
The real reason, imo, why we have unconstitutonally big federal government is the following. Parents have not been making sure that their children are being taught the federal government's constitutionally limited powers, such evidenced powers by Section 8 mentioned above. Consequently, when corrupt candidates for federal office like Obama buy votes from welfare recipients and the jobless by promising government spending programs, many voters are clueless that such promises are based on constitutionally nonexistent federal government powers.
Also, since the Constitution doesn't prohibit the states from prohibiting eligible citizens from voting if they cannot pass a constitutional proficiency test, such a test stressing the federal government's constitutonally limited powers, Levin might consider pushing for states to require that citizens pass such a test before being allowed to vote. Voters who pass the test would then have a better idea when corrupt candidates for federal office make promises that are constitutionally indefensible.
And even if such a test is not adopted, the test and correct answers would still be there for the corrupt media to ridicule, getting voters up to speed on the federal government's limited powers while doing so.
Finally, remember that the only reason that citizens are so concerned about who is president is because of the perceived powers of the Oval Office, the Oval Office actually not the most powerful office in the land regardless what Obama guard dog Fx News wants everybody to think.
Elect a POTUS who vows to veto ever bill to make Congress truly represent the will of the peeps with a > 50% margin required for ANY new law.
Mark, this nation and society ended Nov 6, 2012. You're like a Japanese holdout on Iwo Jima, decades after WWII was over.
All that's left is the final crash, sometime in the not-too-distant future.
Sorry, all, call me an eeyore, but that's the truth, as plain as the nose on your face.
Repealing the 17th Amendment would be a good thing to restore Constitutional balance to our systemof government.
IMHO, All 3 branches of Federal government do not care about the Constitution - it’s just words written on a piece of paper to them, and they simply ignore it and do whatever they think they can make “fly” with the media-manipulated public opinion.
I think you could change it most any way you wanted, and they would simply still ignore it.
I say this because that’s all I see.
I think we do need a “fix” to government, but first we need to “fix” the fact that our population is not exactly moral or very smart at this point.
IMHO...
Honest money wouldn’t hurt either.
The character and morality of our nation has descended to such a point that our people can no longer be free, their personal choices are more dangerous and damaging to themselves and others than those of an overreaching and oppressive government. If we want to return to the government our founders intended, the people must return to the principles, morals, virtues and character of those once governed by the founders. That can only happen when people actually start living by and holding others to those standards.
I do believe the tide is turning as the poisonous fruits of lawlessness become more and more apparent in the scandals and the suffering caused by them, continuing to grow beyond the ability of the media to effectively spin them into obscurity. Each of us are faced daily with opportunities to show the value of integrity, justice, knowledge, fortitude, wisdom and grace. We must boldly show others, this far and no further. We must love and not hate but we cannot cower to the fear that we might not succeed. Great men and women have faced down that same demon and we will do the same. Hold up the heros like Mark despite their flaws of which we all have many because they will lead us to victory, its not an option, the hour is very late.
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - -- Winston Churchill