Article V Convention: No Reason to Fear Liberals (or Conservatives)

In my many efforts to educate Americans about their constitutional right to have an Article V convention I have regularly encountered the fear that liberals would control the convention and produce awful results. Let me carefully make the case why this fear is completely unjustified and why patriotic Americans that are not constitutional hypocrites should support the nonpartisan effort of Friends of the Article V Convention.

An Article V convention is too important to oppose. If you love and respect the Constitution, then the honorable thing to do is support our efforts to make Congress obey the Constitution and give us the first convention. After all, the Founders and Framers knew that inevitably Americans would lose trust in their creation of a strong central, federal government. So they gave us the convention option and, with one exception, gave the power to run the convention to the states. That one exception was that they required Congress call or convene the convention once the one and only specified requirement in Article V was satisfied. With some 750 applications from all 50 states, that two-thirds of states requirement has long been met. Members of Congress have disobeyed the Constitution and their oath of office to uphold it.

Face facts; face the truth, face history: Partisan political interests on the left and right have consistently opposed a convention for the simple reason that they fear a convention of state delegates with the power to propose constitutional amendments (that must still be ratified) that might reduce the power wielded by partisan politicians.

Nowadays, I often hear the fear that Speaker Pelosi would use her power to do awful things if a convention was convened. Nonsense, absolute nonsense with no merit whatsoever. I challenge anyone to find any evidence that Pelosi favors having the first Article V convention. Second, everyone must constantly be reminded that state legislatures would decide how to select their delegates to a convention. To think that Democrats and liberals would be able to manipulate delegate selection in a majority of states is also sheer nonsense. Today, if you look at state legislators you see that the few who talk about the need for reformist constitutional amendments are almost always Republicans and conservatives.

Finally, the logic of this historic situation is simple: Rather than fear using our constitutional option of an Article V convention what intelligent and concerned Americans should fear is the two-party plutocracy status quo that has ignored and manipulated our Constitution to wreck havoc and pain on our Republic. Every conceivable organized interest that is able to manipulate the political system to get what they want, especially corporate interests, fear a convention. What they fear is what we the people urgently need: true political reforms that will never come from a permanently corrupt Congress, neither through ordinary laws or proposed constitutional amendments.

I also recognize that many people on the left most likely think that far right conservatives would ultimately control a convention, but that belief is equally irrational, because they have a really small fraction of the population addicted to their nonsense.

In sum, if you remain, for whatever reason, totally opposed to an Article V convention, then I suggest you:

a) are a constitutional hypocrite (assuming you profess a positive view of the US Constitution) because you think that individuals and Congress and pick and choose which parts of the Constitution must be obeyed

b) favor keeping the current two-party plutocracy status quo with the worst (most successful politicians) in power

c) are so jaded and cynical that they do not believe that there are many millions of smart, patriotic Americans (neither Democrats or Republicans) who really want true political reforms that they know will not come from the corrupt Congress and who would work to ensure that state legislatures did not corrupt the convention process

d) may be living with the delusional fantasy that some third party will magically obtain power, win elections and reform the federal government, but not the Green Party or the Libertarian Party have shown any ability to be successful for federal elections, nor will any new one stand a chance until we reform the political system

e) have given up on demanding that states exert their constitutional powers

f) or all of the above

If none of these fit you, then go to the website foavc.org of Friends of the Article V Convention, which is the only place where citizens can actually find and read the hundreds of state applications for a convention (Congress was too fearful to ever make them readily available), and then become a member of our group. With more members our efforts will be taken more seriously.