Wiki_QA__##

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
Title: Our Founders anticipated this problem

Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/our-founders-anticipated-this-problem|our-founders-anticipated-this-problem]]

Login Required to view? No

Created: 2023-01-06 15:52:17

Updated: 2023-01-13 03:00:00

Published: 2023-01-06 00:00:00

Converted: 2025-04-14T21:22:12.530623047


----




I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that our country is in crisis. America is over [[https://www.usdebtclock.org/|$31 trillion]] in debt now. The average family of four pays more interest on the national debt (via their taxes) than they do for their home mortgage. \\
\\
Our government has become a collection of parasites rather than public servants. It seems every day we hear another revelation about bureaucrats attacking our liberties.\\
\\
“Equal justice under the law” is little more than a cruel taunt – having no connection with reality. Instead, the application of the law depends on what political party or “oppressed” group one belongs to.\\
\\
Politicians don’t stay in office by doing the will of the voters. Now the game is gerrymandering and playing with the election rules.\\
\\
In short, electoral politics isn’t working for the vast majority of Americans anymore. \\
\\
After the midterm elections, both parties worked together to rush through a couple of parting shots to the voters in the lame-duck session. \\
\\
They gave us the [[https://redstate.com/kiradavis/2022/11/29/senate-passes-respect-for-marriage-act-bill-heads-to-house-n666487|Respect for Marriage Act]] (which forces religious liberty to the back of the LGBTQ bus). \\
\\
They also shoved through a [[https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/12/25/the-dumpter-fire-omnibus-bill-goes-from-bad-to-worse-in-mind-numbing-ways-n678867|$1.7 trillion omnibus bill]] – which nobody read before approving because it [[https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/12/29/the-final-act-of-the-omnibus-monstrosity-is-truly-unbelievable-n680391|hadn’t been written yet]]. Now that it has been written, we see that our priorities have been ignored again. There’s money for [[https://www.ncregister.com/blog/2023-omnibus-spending-bill-abortion-overseas|healthcare]] – as long as healthcare is abortion and not children’s hospitals. There’s also money for the expansion of the administrative state – everywhere except where it would enhance border security. There’s even a pile of cash for [[https://washingtonstand.com/news/omnibus-bill-includes-over-11-million-in-lgbt-special-interest-projects|LGBT centers and museums]] – because alternative lifestyles are now a thing of admiration. \\
\\
We have communicated our desires via the politicians that we’ve elected, but the establishment still isn’t listening. They clearly think they don’t need our approval. They seem determined to spend mountains of our money and bloviate about their principles – when their only principle seems to be living the Washington lifestyle. \\
\\
What’s a patriot to do? We know what we want. 

  * We want the government to stop wasting our money.
  * We want our politicians to prioritize our agenda over their careers.
  * We want a runaway bureaucracy brought to heal.

It’s finding a path to get there that’s the problem. We could vote Democrat – but that’s a bullet train to socialism. We could vote Republican – and facilitate a slow lingering death of the country. We could vote for a third party – feel good about the protest, but take ourselves out of the debate entirely. \\
\\
Maybe we should take a non-electoral approach. Amazingly, our Founders anticipated the crisis we’re in – where our government doesn’t govern the way the self-governed want it to. They actually gave us a constitutional means to fix it. Article V of the Constitution gives us (through our states) the means to amend the Constitution, without any help from the federal government or our federally elected “public servants.”\\
\\
If 34 states agree, they can call a convention in which amendments to the Constitution are proposed. If those proposals are ratified by 38 states, the Constitution is amended – which means how the government operates is amended. Just think how different government would operate with amendments to:

  * Impose fiscal responsibility
  * Place term limits on our “public servants”
  * Restrict government overreach

Unfortunately, there’s resistance to an Article V convention. There are those who claim that a convention will lose control and result in a complete rewrite of our Constitution. They claim we could lose all of our civil liberties. They fret that we could even lose Social Security and Medicare. An attempt to amend our sacred Constitution would end our Republic. The horror!\\
\\
And who’s making those claims? Over [[https://conventionofstates.com/files/230-progressive-organizations-oppose-cos|230 left-wing groups]] organized by George Soros’ [[https://www.commoncause.org/resource/u-s-constitution-threatened-as-article-v-convention-movement-nears-success/|Common Cause]] – and a few [[https://conventionofstates.com/news/john-birch-society-finds-self-destruct-switch-in-constitution-1|conservative groups]] who’ve been duped by them. Here’s a thought: If the groups committed to the destruction of America are against it, maybe we should give it another look.\\
\\
An Article V convention is not the scary “end of America” that the naysayers claim it would be. There are [[https://afnn.us/2022/05/04/perhaps-we-should-give-the-constitution-a-try/|numerous safeguards]] to prevent it from turning into a constitutional rewrite. Those safeguards are based on the fact that the states, not the federal government, remain in control of the process. The ultimate safeguard is the fact that a convention only proposes amendments that must be ratified by the states. Unless there are 38 states that would like to dump our Bill of Rights and shove grandma off the cliff, it isn’t going to happen.\\
\\
The Soros “defenders of the republic” love to quote the late Justice Scalia. They point out that he said this would be a bad time to rewrite the constitution – and he did say that. But he also said this:

> //I do not have a lack of trust in the American people. I am the one here who is least terrified of a convention.  The one remedy specifically provided for in the Constitution is the amendment process that bypasses Congress. I would like to see that amendment process used just once. I do not much care what it is used for the first time, but using it once will exert an enormous influence on both the Congress and the Supreme Court.//

Unlike opponents, Scalia understood the difference between a convention to propose amendments and a convention to rewrite the Constitution. He was in favor of the former, and against the latter. He too felt that it was time to remind the federal government that it works for us.\\
\\
What are we as self-governed citizens to do?\\
\\
Educate our children. Our schools won’t teach them the importance of freedom or why our Republic is organized the way it is. It’s up to us to prepare our next generation of citizens.\\
\\
Don’t walk away from elections. They are a vital part of our representative government. We need to vote smartly, especially in the primary elections. But recognize that our duty to hold the government accountable doesn’t end at the ballot box.\\
\\
We need to lobby our state governments to get involved in federal government operations. That includes encouraging our state legislators to use the tools given to them by the Constitution to remind the federal government that it still answers to us.\\
\\
Article V gives us the means to bring our federal government to heal. We just need to choose to do so – and it really is as simple as making that choice.

Make the choice to [[https://conventionofstates.com/take_action|get active in the COS movement]] today. You won't regret helping save our nation.