In 1787, the last details of the US Constitution were just being settled when George Mason, the principal drafter of Virginia’s foundational documents, identified a serious oversight. As Article V had originally been written, it only allowed Congress to propose Constitutional amendments. Mason correctly saw the danger of that.
“As the proposing of amendments is to depend…ultimately, on Congress, no amendments of the proper kind would ever be obtained by the people, if the Government should become oppressive.”
So the framers added an option to Article V allowing the states to call a Convention of States in case the federal government ever became corrupt and unresponsive to the will of the people. “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments…”
Surely Things Haven’t Gotten to That Point, Right?
Up until a few decades ago, most people felt that whatever was wrong, we could eventually vote our way back to sanity. We would elect virtuous people who would add to the Constitution term limits, a balanced budget amendment, etc., and such amendments that would return our government to a well-functioning condition.
There is still hope for that, of course, but hope is fading. Thanks to corruption of the political process, incumbents are typically reelected 80% of the time. That might be fine if those incumbents were actually popular, but in reality only 21% of the US population approves the job that their elected Congresspeople are doing. We go through the motions of elections but in the end get leaders few of us want.
This unhappy and perilous state of things has been underscored over recent decades by the failure of three attempted reform movements.
DC Swamp Beats Reformers 3-0
In 1992 and 1996, Ross Perot ran on a platform of balancing the budget, getting out of international conflicts (he opposed the Gulf War), and protecting American jobs. He lost both times. The established two-party system proved too strong to be beaten by a third-party upstart, even despite Perot’s enormous wealth.
In 2009, the Tea Party movement was created with similar ideas, particularly regarding controlling federal spending. However, after some initial successes, the IRS launched audits against the movement and in some cases other agencies joined in the attack. The Tea Party did have some effect on moving the Republican Party away from its RINO wing, but it eventually dissolved. It couldn’t beat the swamp either.
Then in 2016 came Trump and his “deplorable” followers. Trump tapped into much of the same concerns of Perot and the Tea Party. His unlikely election triggered an hysterical reaction by the DC establishment, and Trump was put on the defensive by the very agencies that were supposed to report to him. It was a soft coup. This was followed by the 2020 election, which half the country thinks was suspect, and which bizarrely was followed by the imprisonment of some of Trump’s most ardent followers.
The Convention — Now Or Never?
It used to be that if your party lost you’d take consolation in the possibility that it could win the next time. In many US states, however, Democrats have come up with a formula to gain permanent one-party status. They are playing for keeps, and if they succeed in enough states it will no longer even be possible to have a Convention.
When I first moved to California, it was a purple state with fair elections. But a combination of electoral reforms — mail-in ballots, voting without an ID, automatic motor-voter registration, and finally ballot harvesting — were made in the name of making voting easier. Coincidentally, all of these reforms also made vote fraud easier, not only easier but more likely and largely undetectable. Combined with poor voter roll maintenance and other changes, these have turned the state that formerly elected Ronald Reagan governor solid blue with little hope of ever being redeemed.
These electoral reforms have since spread to other states and in many cases certainly affected the outcome of the 2020 election.
Democrats have made the federalization of these changes their Holy Grail, and they nearly got away with it in 2019 and again in 2021. The House under Nancy Pelosi introduced the For the People Act, which was intended to federalize US elections and enshrine into law legalized ballot harvesting and other dubious changes that would make fraud easier. In both the 2019 and 2021 attempts, the bill passed the House and nearly passed the Senate but was blocked by heroics from a handful of Senators. It was a very, very close shave both times. These will not be their last attempts.
But Isn’t a Convention Risky?
Not as risky as you might think, and doing nothing is far riskier.
The framers didn’t want a Convention of States to be called on light cause, so they didn’t make it easy. Thirty-four disparate states would need to agree in order to trigger such a convention. It would be even harder to actually amend the Constitution — thirty-eight states would need to ratify any amendment proposed by such a convention.
All that would require enormous national consensus. You might get such a consensus for term limits or a balanced budget amendment — two very popular and desperately needed reforms — but you’d be unlikely to get it for much else.
But even apart from that, the question isn’t so much whether a convention is risky as whether it would be riskier to fail to have a convention. The federal debt is a on an unrelenting and accelerating path to insolvency. The US reels from one war after the next, none of them authorized by Congress. Congress and its appointed agencies generate endless new laws and regulations, repealing few — the total body of law has more than doubled since just 1970. Not surprisingly, the US has the world’s highest ratio of prisoners per capita. As the saying goes, “the more laws, the more offenders.”
As others have noted, we are experiencing the same pattern of decline as the late Republic of Rome. The inescapable outcome, without root and branch reform, is eventual insolvency, depression, chaos, and in a weakened state of things perhaps even vulnerability to invasion.
As economists say, what can’t go on forever…won’t.
Does a Convention Really Have a Chance of Working?
If you asked me this question ten years ago, I would have said no. But such a convention is now just fourteen states away from being called, with progress toward a call expected in many of these remaining states. It’s now possible, but it will take some effort to move the ball across the finish line.
You may think this desperate measure is premature. But at the very least, you should educate yourself about this effort. You can learn more at the Convention of States website. If you’re already sold, there are opportunities to help.
Wise Words From an American Patriot
President Dwight Eisenhower, in the waning days of his administration, saw that the federal government was getting out of control. His final speech is famous for warning of the Military Industrial Complex, but it actually warned of much more: a university system captive to government funding, a technological elite that attempts to dominate the country, and runaway government debt.
He saw it all coming.
He also saw that the day might come when the people would need to invoke Article V and call a Convention of States to regain control of the federal government.
His message: when the time comes, do it, call the convention.