Title: Should We Take Up Arms? Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/should-we-take-up-arms|should-we-take-up-arms]] Login Required to view? No Created: 2022-07-11 09:42:55 Updated: 2024-07-16 04:43:24 Published: 2022-07-12 01:00:00 Converted: 2025-04-14T21:18:19.704892963 ---- “A poll released today (Thursday, 30 June) by the IOP (Institute of Politics, Chicago University) shows our nation's stark partisan divisions - and how media outlets contribute. Among the findings: more than one in four Americans are so alienated from their government that they believe it may ‘soon be necessary to take up arms’ against it.” — Univ Chicago Institute of Politics (IOP) (@UChiPolitics) June 30, 2022\\ \\ The fact that 25 percent of Americans are so frustrated that they would take up arms against our government shows just how much distrust and animosity there is towards our government. Taking up arms or creating an insurrection should be the absolute last resort citizens should take. Violence should only occur when no other way is seen out of our dilemma. People can get hurt doing that. Fortunately, there is another way. Our Forefathers foresaw just this kind of situation and put Article 5 in the Constitution. Article 5 allows the people to make their voices heard. Our Forefathers saw that a government can be corrupted and will do everything possible to protect itself and to maintain the favors of the corrupt. Enter the Convention of States (COS), whose sole purpose is to bring sanity back to government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  \\ \\ There are people who will be corrupt. There are some politicians who will put themselves above the people and use their position for their own benefit. The professional politician has more opportunities to be corrupt. How can we limit the corruption? COS proposes that there be a limitation of terms of service imposed on Senators and Representatives, much like the President’s two-term limitation. A proposed Amendment (to be ratified by three-fourths of the states) would limit the terms of Senators and Representatives. Will that end corruption? No, but it will limit the opportunity to be corrupt. As long as there is so much money from special interest groups in Washington, there will be those who succumb to temptation. It falls upon the people to vote for more ethical and moral people to be their representatives.\\ \\ No household can survive or flourish when their debts are larger than their income. Why do we believe the United States to be different? We were once a creditor nation. Now we are a debtor nation with more than $30 trillion in debt and we are unable to stem the outflow of dollars. Congress seems hell-bent on buying votes and creating more debt to the detriment of our children. Unless we get a hold of our expenses, we will all suffer. One of the objectives of COS is to balance the budget without resorting to borrowing money, printing money, or selling off our assets. Balancing the budget will be painful in the short term, but will be beneficial in the long term. How we will balance the budget depends on us and Congress. We are presently in a World War and the battlefield is currency. We paid more than $430 billion in interest last year on taxable income of $4 trillion - more than 10 percent of government income (we pay the interest on government mismanagement). The interest is more than we spend on the defense of our country. Source – Openthebooks.com\\ \\ The third objective of COS is limitation to the powers of government and specifically the power of the President. The President is an administrator and is supposed to do the will of Congress. Congress is the legislative branch of government – not the President and not the Supreme Court. As Congress will not do its job, the President has usurped more power for that office. The Supreme Court has sometimes interpreted the Constitution according to the bias of its judges (Roe v Wade). Judges are supposed to be unbiased, but sadly they are influenced by outside influences and beliefs. We have less definition on how to limit the powers of government than we do for term limits and budget balancing. It is time to begin discussing ways to limit government influence in our lives. One such way is to enact sunset laws to every bill so that every law must be reenacted every three years. Can you think of other ways to limit government power?\\ \\ For those who are frustrated and feel they must rise up with arms, please note that there is another and better alternative. Frustrated people can support the Convention of States to find a more peaceful way for the resolution of our frustrations. Put your support behind the Convention of States – and do it immediately.