Keyword: conventionofstates
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What do the John Birch Society, Eagle Forum, Common Cause and Planned Parenthood have in common? They all oppose the states’ use of Article V of our Constitution to impose and enforce constitutional limits on Washington. While it is no surprise that Marxist-leaning groups would fight, tooth and nail, to resist any plan for breaking the federal government’s virtual monopoly on policy-making, all conservatives agree that this monopoly is a perversion of our federal system. But, sadly, the Left’s propaganda and junk history have brainwashed some conservatives into opposing the states’ use of constitutional power to check federal overreach. Having...
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Subtitle: Cato’s Letter No. 62. On Liberty, January 20th, 1722. I closed a recent squib with, “They (the writings of Sidney, Locke, Tacitus) bolstered what liberty-loving Americans had experienced and looked forward to: happiness in a natural equality among self-governing, God-fearing men.” As for Locke, colonial Americans absorbed his philosophy and much more through Cato’s Letters: Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, a series of entertaining newspaper opinion pieces (1720-1723) by two Englishmen, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. The namesake of their work, Cato, sought to save the Roman Republic through his oratory. Similarly, Trenchard and Gordon’s pen and printing...
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A Missouri teenager has been charged with child porn possession after his father found pictures of a nude toddler on his cellphone. According to KTVI, Paul Spensberger found the images after confiscating his son Andrew Spensberger's, cellphone. He had taken the device away as punishment. Advertisement He reported the images to police on Dec. 30. The O'Fallon Missouri Police Department says the images were of a 2-year-old girl, a relative of Paul Spensberger's girlfriend. Andrew Spensberger reportedly took the pictures while the child was asleep on the floor of his bedroom. Andrew told investigators he was planning to sell the...
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In opposition to the Framers, late 19th century progressives promoted a new purpose, and a new foundation for the senate. Rather than block the will of the people, the new senate should facilitate their will. To facilitate their will, it follows that senators must, like representatives, stand for popular election. In 1891, Senator David Turpie (D-IN), said that direct election, “would serve the needs, wants, aims, and aspirations of the masses of men in our communities to be more faithfully reflected, more clearly imaged forth in the laws of the country and administration.” Self-interest led the House of Representatives to...
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In continuance of the Senate of the States series, the next three squibs leave the Federal Convention and visit the decades leading to the destructive 17th Amendment (17A). The 17A triggered a cascade of stunning downwind consequences, perhaps only second in effect to the immediate post-Civil War amendments. As opposed to the 13th – 15th Amendments which reset society, the 17A reset our republican governing form. Overnight, the 17A transformed the Framers’ exquisite compound democratic/federal structure into a democratic form deadly to republics.1 Why the 17th Amendment? What enormous forces convinced the people, states, and congress to trade a proven,...
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Up to now, the convention’s great divide was between the large and small states. Today, focus drifted toward the rift between north and south, non-slave vs. slave-holding states. The 3/5 rule and expected rapid population growth in the southwest disturbed some northern delegates. If slaves and whites filled new states as anticipated, southern states would soon dominate the House of Representatives. Abruptly, yet understandably, the aristocratic Gouverneur Morris (PA), who recently recommended doing away with the states, turned about in support of equal state suffrage in the senate as a counterbalance to a fast-growing south. Only a northern state senate...
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Fox News announced on Tuesday that nationally syndicated radio talk show personality Mark Levin will join the network with a weekly, weekend primetime show titled, “Life, Liberty & Levin.” “Mark’s passion for the principles found in the Constitution and success in talk radio has made him a distinct figure in the media landscape. We look forward to adding this spirited program to our weekend lineup,” Fox News President of Programming Suzanne Scott said. A Message from Shutterfly Gifts like no other Make this Christmas magical with easy-to-create gifts that can be made with your favorite memories, photos and more. Levin’s...
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Following passage of a joint State Senate resolution Tuesday, Wisconsin became the 28th state to call for a U.S. constitutional convention. Earlier this year, the Wisconsin State Assembly passed a similar resolution. As the resolutions have now passed both houses of the state Legislature, and as Governor Scott Walker’s approval is not needed, last night’s vote made Wisconsin’s call for a constitutional convention official. The convention was called in support of a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would require the federal government to operate under a balanced budget.
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I’ve found the State Legislators Article V Caucus website to be an invaluable resource for keeping up with the latest goings-on in the Article V Convention of States movement. Anyone can join. Members receive a monthly email with links to timely articles on the progress of Article V across the states. Features from the October issue: • Phoenix Convention September 12th – 15th. Nineteen states sent delegates to develop parliamentary rules for a future Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) Article V COS. View the rules package here. • Phoenix Convention Drew Considerable Media Attention. US News & World Report and the...
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(Hillary joins FreeRepublic Article V Opponents.) While making the rounds on her book tour, Hillary Clinton recently sat down with Vox’s Ezra Klein to discuss her failed presidential bid, President Trump, and the challenges currently faced by the Democrat minority. Among those challenges, Clinton warned, is a “radical change” being pursued by forces on the right: “There’s a big move for change coming from the right that I think would be disastrous for our country. They want radical, ‘pull ’em up by the roots’ change. They want to have a constitutional convention to rewrite our constitution, to make it friendlier...
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September 27, 2017 A summary of understanding the issue is as thus: THE 17TH AMENDMENT ALLOWED VOTERS TO 'HIRE' THEIR US SENATORS DIRECTLY WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT FRUITS WOULD BE CREATED. A RECALL POWER ALLOWS VOTERS TO 'FIRE' THEIR US SENATORS ONCE THE ROTTING OF FRUITS BECOMES VISIBLE, BUT RECALL IS NOT SUFFICIENT. VESTING BOTH HIRING AND FIRING IN VOTERS LEADS TO DENIAL AND TENSION IN THE 'FOG OF DISTANCE' AS ROTTEN FRUITS BECOME ALTERNATELY VISIBLE, THEN HIDDEN, THEN FORGOTTEN, SOWING CONFUSION AND FRUSTRATION. A THREE-WAY SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTABILITY REMOVES THE FOG OF DISTANCE AND ALLOWS FOR INSPECTION AND REMOVAL OF...
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PHOENIX - The solid rap of a gavel falling at the Arizona State Capitol wasn't lost on the assembled 72 delegates from across the country. "It's pretty historic, really," Arizona State Rep. Don Shooter said. "I think it's the first time since 1861." Lawmakers and observers were in Phoenix for the Balanced Budget Amendment Planning Convention, the very first step in amending the US Constitution. The proposal would force the federal government to only spend the money it has. "This isn't a Republican or Democrat issue; this is an American issue, I think," Kansas State Rep. Blake Carpenter said. But can...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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