Posted on 11/30/2014 3:28:43 PM PST by Up Yours Marxists
Rising frustration with Washington and conservative electoral victories across much of the U.S. are feeding a movement in favor of something America hasn't done in 227 years: Hold a convention to rewrite the Constitution.
Although it's still not likely to be successful, the effort is more serious than before: Already, more than two dozen states have called for a convention. There are two ways to change or amend the founding document. The usual method is for an adjustment to win approval from two-thirds of the Congress and then be ratified by three-quarters of the states. There have been 27 amendments adopted this way.
The second procedure is separate from Congress. It requires two-thirds of the states, or 34, to call for a convention. The framers thought this was necessary because Congress wouldn't be likely to advance any amendments that curtailed its powers. But this recourse never has been used.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
do you honestly believe that 38 states would elect and reelect Obama to the presidency......me neither
Read through the entire thread, Arthur. This is one of the better ones for debate and education purposes.
Please read Post #104.
Have you done background reading and study on the persons behind the Article V movement and their quality? Do you think for one moment they are unaware of the games and antics played by the Beltway class.
I can assure you Conservatives at the State level are a hell of a lot smarter than you think! They are certainly smarter than any group in the GOPe.
Read:
I agree. Just imagine what amendments will pass when they get done counting all of the undocumented states votes. So long republic.
We already have that. It’s called Governors with testicles.
Well, actually, we don’t have that. But that’s what we could have.
The morning after Roe v. Wade, all fifty governors should have announced that they were not going to allow murder in their states. And the President should have announced that any state that DID allow murder would be expelled from the Union.
Because they didn’t, the legitimacy of the U.S. Government ended on January 22, 1973.
“do you honestly believe that 38 states would elect and reelect Obama to the presidency......me neither”
It did not take 38 states to elect and reelect Obama.
Since the leftists in California, New York, and Illinois get a lot of electoral votes, it does not take 38 states to elect a leftist President.
In a Convention of the States, each state gets one vote.
“Mute” was a poor word choice on my part. My apologies.
Sadly, that seems to be about 53% true, and I really don't have any solution, except maybe gridlock until we can rebuild our education system, but that is going the total wrong way right now.
A Gallup Poll from that era showed that the American people were even more pro-abortion than the Supreme Court. There was little negative reaction at the time to Roe. The real debates had taken place earlier in the Colorado referendum, the Washington state initiative, and the knock-down-drag-out brawl in the New York State Legislature. Old duffers like me remember that Roe was an anticlimax. It took roughly six years before a movement was organized to reverse it.
And the President should have announced that any state that DID allow murder would be expelled from the Union.
The Supreme Court's decision in Texas v. White in 1869 said that the Union was permanent and indivisible. Thus, there was no legal way to toss a state out of the Union without the tool of a constitutional amendment. There was no groundswell for that, either.
While Roe trashed the 10th Amendment, it was just another blow going back to Wickard v. Filburn in 1942, where the federal entity laid claim to every facet of American life via the Interstate Commerce Clause.
That's one of the things I would hope to see remedied at an Amendments Convention.
Undocumented states? Would these be the 7 states that Obama referred to when he said we had 57 states?
Senator Mike Lee is fully aware and expert on the history and ramifications of Wickard v. Filburn. Although he is now a US Senator, he is also Tea Party endorsed and supported. I would bet he would lend all his support to an Article V conference whereby an amendment was proposed and passed to remedy this egregious abuse of the Commerce Clause.
And most readers might think we are engaging in wonkish details here but the abuse of the Commerce Clause is what lies at the root of the growth of the Federal Government Leviathan in the 20th Century.
One of the roots of such wasteful, foolish, intrusive, thuggish, and sometimes tyrannous government is the ease with which it can create almost unlimited amounts of money out of thin air. Near-infinite money buys near-infinite government, and a bureaucracy that is generously funded can entertain an open-ended dream about how to expand its realm.
Every day more people are coming to the judgment that a carefully organized effort to repair the constitution via the States’ power to propose and ratify amendments has less risk to our liberty and prosperity than the present trajectory of the federal government and especially the federal bureaucracy.
The first order of business of an Article V Convention must be to limit government’s ability to create and spend near-infinite amounts of money.
Thank you for educating. I do appreciate it.
Amendments Convention. I like that. Thanks.
Well some people say if being raped is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it. To me that is a deplorable position. Equally deplorable is to let the judges win on the marriage issue just because everyone says it is inevitable. “We can’t beat them.” It should be fought until the end of time.
That’s not a fair assessment of the ground game. The TEA Party movement, albeit noble and genuine, doesn’t have a foothold at the state level regardless of which state they reside in.
The GOPe has been in power since before the Civil War and continues to control even the simplest of “pro people” conservative houses. I’m afraid people here underestimate the graft and corruption the feds share with these families. Look around. You’ll see this every day. Now isn’t the time to open Pandora’s box.
But Congress hasn't done so. Nor is there any political will to do so.
If there is nothing to fear from Congress in this area, then it is even less likely that there is something to fear from the states assembled in convention.
Yeah, I can see that. First off, it’s called an Article V Convention to propose amendments. It does not re-write the Constitution, of course, but merely amends it the same way Congress can.
The only flaw I can see with the Article V convention route is that it DOES require Congress to call the convention, if 34 states call for it. What if Congress simply refuses to call it?
“What, the Constitution requires it? Well, it doesn’t say how long an acceptable lag time is, now does it?”
Thanks for the info. So Congress must set the time and place as well? Well, what if Global Warming prevents them from finding an ideal location? What if the government declares a state of emergency because of Fergadishu?
I can just see a mountain of excuses pouring forth from this Congress as to why they cannot call the convention at this time.
I’m not saying the Article V convention route is not a good idea, I’m just saying we may have to go to court just to get Congress to do its job on the issue.
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