Free Republic

We have a great Constitution, and next Sunday, Sept. 17, we celebrate its 230th anniversary on “Constitution Day.” But which Constitution will we celebrate? Among the ingenious features of our national government’s operating manual are its separation and limitation of powers and its built-in checks and balances. But one often-overlooked virtue of our Constitution is its relative simplicity. Think about it: The blueprint for the most powerful nation on the planet can be easily published in a pocket-sized pamphlet that is lighter than a deck of cards and can be read and understood by the average citizen in the space...

From our earliest colonial times, society expected freeholders, those self-sufficient men, to participate in government. At a minimum that meant voting for local, colonial/state, and federal officials. Only those with a will of their own, those independent men who did not rely on anyone else for their sustenance, were thought capable of self-government. The Framers were concerned with a voting franchise that in time would extend to the shiftless and angry masses. Those who work and pay taxes resent voting by those who don’t work, and don’t pay taxes. In recent decades is the added insult of the untaxed voting...

In our Declaration, which itemizes certain self-evident rights among innumerable others, consent of the governed is the just basis of government, whose purpose is to secure our rights. Consequently, it follows that a government that secured rights, yet did so without the consent of the governed, was not just. An absolute, benevolent monarch ruling a happy and prosperous people, one who secured the people’s right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, violates Natural Law justice because rule without the consent of the governed is tyranny. Tyranny cannot be just. Yet, isn’t this the sort of rule the Progressive...

The fact that we celebrate the Every Student Succeeds Act for shifting education policy back to the states is an alarming indicator of federal dysfunction. Instead of rejoicing about a reduced extent of unauthorized federal meddling in state affairs, we should work to remove the heavy hand of centralized government entirely from every sphere in which it has no legitimate authority. A quick visit to the U.S. Department of Education’s website reveals just how thoroughly the feds have burst the seams of their constitutional pants. There we find the agency reminding states about deadlines for submitting “State plans” for education...

There's never been a better time to call a Convention of States. While both Democrat and Republican legislators support limiting the power of the federal government, we've found that states controlled by conservatives are more likely to pass the Convention of States resolution. That's why this article from The Daily Signal is such good news: Republicans now control the governorship and legislature in 26 states and conservative leaders say this trend continues to grow in Republicans’ favor. “Over the last seven years since we have covered state legislatures and state executives pretty extensively, there’s been a significant shift from Democratic-controlled...

I am regularly taken aback by those who think our freedoms should depend on the character of those we elect to political office. If such men exist, then a simple assembly of these angels would do for a government. Grant a few hundred virtuous intellectuals the legislative, executive, and judicial power and be done with it. Why not? In fact, if such men exist, why not empower just one man with the three broad functions? To rely on the virtue alone of our rulers, Article V opponents guarantee a nation not of law, but of men and tyranny. Those who...

On Thursday, people unhappy with California’s place in the United States filed yet another proposed ballot measure that could lead to the Golden State striking out on its own. This time, the goal is convening a U.S. constitutional convention to overhaul what proponents call a moldy national blueprint out of step with life in California. The measure says a reworked Constitution should include a provision creating a “clear and reasonable path for states to achieve complete independence from the United States should any state so choose.” No state has become independent under the existing U.S. Constitution. “The world has changed...

One of the less understood yet revolutionary features of our governing forms is the built-in retention of the sovereign people’s authority to affect peaceful improvements to our state and national governments. Our new contribution to politics was the idea of provisions for reformation, of enabling society to return to first principles. As opposed to the beliefs of Article V opponents, this first principle of the American Revolution, is, per James Wilson, “Not a principle of discord, rancor, or war; it is a principle of melioration, contentment and peace.” Article V institutionalized and legitimated peaceful revolution. Somewhere along the way, our...

Next month delegations of state lawmakers will travel to Phoenix, Arizona, to attend what organizers say will be the first formal convention of states since the Civil War. They’ll gather at the capitol, inside the turquoise-carpeted House chamber, and draw up rules for a hoped-for future meeting: a convention to draft an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.No “amendment convention” has taken place since the Constitution was written over 200 years ago. But the idea is gaining steam now, stoked by groups on the left and right that say amendments drafted and ratified by states are the last, best hope for...

Former Governor Mike Hucakbee and Col. Allen West believe it could. Gov. Huckabee pointed out in a tweet last week that repealing the 17th Amendment, which instituted the popular election of Senators, would ensure that Senators work for their states and respect the 10th Amendment. "Time to repeal 17th Amendment," he said on July 28th. "Founders had it right-Senators chosen by state legislatures. Will work for their states and respect 10th amid." Col. Allen West made a similar point in a much longer piece on his website: Imagine if those GOP senators who blocked the repeal of Obamacare could be...

Hundreds of articles and blog posts since the COS movement emerged a few years ago deal with the impossibility of reform emerging from those who profit so well from DC corruption. Other posts, like those scattered about this ArticleVBlog, examined the historic foundations of free government from the 17th century English philosophers down to our Revolution and Constitution. When taken together, all the events and ideas which shaped the American psyche since publication of the King James Bible in 1611 may be grouped together by the term, ‘Tradition’. Today, I appeal to that which gets so little attention, but is...

DENVER — Jim DeMint brought bad news from Washington. Republicans run every branch of the government, but it was “no longer possible for the federal government to avoid a disaster.” “We have accomplished little more than to slow the growth of spending, debt, and regulations,” the former senator from South Carolina told a breakfast audience at the American Legislative Exchange Council’s policy conference on Thursday. “It’s very unlikely, after all the promises, that we’re going to repeal Obamacare and eliminate the federal control of health care.” For members of ALEC, a 45-year-old think tank that helps state legislators craft libertarian-leaning...

Both the Convention of States (COS) Movement and Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action (OFA) pursue change, but from entirely different foundations and for opposing purposes. The former works to restore the best of the American Tradition; the latter works to destroy what is left of it. I fear we are losing the war for the American Soul. While the foundations of the American Tradition are beyond reproach and easily defended, the Obamatons simply out-organize us. When I visited the OFA website [https://www.ofa.us/about-ofa/] , I foolishly expected a bold mission statement of Progressivism, a smack between the eyes with exactly what...

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) on Friday called for the repeal of the 17th Amendment and the return to senators selected by state legislatures after the Senate GOP's effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare died in a late-night vote. The 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913 and established the popular election of senators. Previously, senators were elected by state legislatures. @GovMikeHuckabee Time to repeal 17th Amendment. Founders had it right-Senators chosen by state legislatures. Will work for their states and respect 10th amid The Senate's "skinny repeal" of ObamaCare failed late Thursday night by a vote of 51-49. The...

As the Article V movement grows, we COS volunteers are asked ever-more questions about Article V. While the COS website has a fine Q&A about the amendment process and safeguards, I wish to delve a little deeper here in support of a successful COS convention and subsequent state ratification debates. To the point, we will never make our goal, the return to free government, unless we are firmly grounded in America’s first principles and can explain them to others. Our nation is searching for its soul. Few are aware of the Natural Law basis of our founding and governing system....

A despotism in our midst no one can do anything about, evidently. Could Congress create a fourth branch of government? Maybe break off a piece of what the executive branch handles now — commerce, say, or agriculture, or maybe even defense — and create a new office supported by its own dedicated tax stream and the authority to levy penalties? The president could still appoint this officer — I think prince-bishop has a nice ring to it — but wouldn’t be able to remove His Excellency absent extraordinary factual circumstances. Maybe we could expect the prince-bishop to decree exile for...

Often people can only take so much pressure before they seek to release it in rash and sudden ways, throwing caution and a careful consideration of consequences to the wind. There were good signs when President Trump was elected that many Americans were entering into that kind of moment. And now, with millions realizing just how widespread and deeply rooted are the problems cool-and-collected President Obama had helped us emotionally paper over, the urge to find release in rash words and deeds is kicking into overdrive. There’s talk of a “cold civil war,” a bitter longing for “national divorce,” and...

The fast-growing, grassroots Convention of States movement has been joined by former senator and head of the Heritage Foundation, Jim DeMint, a constitutional conservative who has been one of the leading champions of limited government and individual liberty in America the past two decades. “The Tea Party needs a new mission,” DeMint told USA TODAY on Monday. “They realize that all the work they did in 2010 has not resulted in all the things they hoped for. Many of them are turning to Article V.” Article V of the U.S. Constitution, often referred to as a “safety valve” provided by...

Former Sen. Tom Coburn reiterated his calls for an Article V Convention to rein in the federal government. Mr. Coburn first proposed the Article V convention idea when he was still in the Senate, but the idea has started to get traction with 12 states signing on to be part of it. The proposal aims to re-balance the branches of government and the federal and state governments as well. An Article V Convention can be invoked when two-thirds of state legislatures call to change the Constitution.

Saying that Washington, D.C., is irrevocably broken and is structurally incapable of fixing itself, former Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has long advocated for an Article V Convention of States to propose new amendments to the Constitution. Now, Senator Coburn has written a book about it. In Smashing the DC Monopoly: Using Article V to Restore Freedom and Stop Runaway Government, Coburn explains how an Amendments Convention would bypass a corrupt Congress to return the federal government to the control of We The People as it was intended. According to Coburn, there are lots of symptoms, but the disease is a...