[Publius]

If that majority was sourced the same as the present majority in Congress, tell me you would trust some delegate with the integrity of the present House leader of the judiciary committee (John Conyers) to preside and uphold the rules and tell their majority they cannot do what that majority demands? He, Conyers, is not the Chair of that committee because there are so few like him out in the states, from where the delegates would be drawn.

Conyers is where he is because seniority and a district that is both one-party and one-race isolates him from public opinion and the real world. Would a delegate elected from Conyers' district be as outside the mainstream as Conyers? Probably. But without seniority, committee power, or the prospect of reelection, would that delegate have the kind of power possessed by Conyers? No. He would simply be a voice outside the mainstream. There might be other voices like his, or he could end up as just one voice in the wilderness -- that deserves to be kept in the wilderness.

I'd like to go back to a reply I made to another FReeper. A Convention for Proposing Amendments would be such a shock to the system that it would cause delegates to be on their best behavior. I have a difficult time seeing a convention degenerating into an ideological power grab that would be sustained by the states at ratification time.

[Wuli]

“I have a difficult time seeing a convention degenerating into an ideological power grab that would be sustained by the states at ratification time.”

I realize that is your view all along and I would like to join you in that with confidence, if I thought I could. It is not any lack of your arguments that prevents me. I see the people and their sentiments in general as lacking in what I believe you and I both would deem necessary. I will say no more and let history take its course. You’ve done a great service in this work of yours. May it someday bear good fruit.