Alex Thorsen
Founder, Thor’s Hammer Radio
June 28, 2017
Can we say that we support our founding principles, while simultaneously standing by and allowing the federal government to usurp authority it does not have, to abuse us and our progeny? It is a question I’ve asked myself a lot, when I felt that I wasn’t doing enough to help my country stay on course with its founding principles: natural rights and separation of powers.
I served in the U.S. Army, deployed downrange to Afghanistan, became a police officer and upheld the law in the best capacity that I know how; yet, it seemed that no matter how much I tried to do the right thing, the country that I love continued to drift further and further away from our true American values. Which is why I put forth a new tactic: speaking out.
I’ve noticed that many powerful voices in today’s world can achieve by speech what I could never do through service – truly change minds and form movements. Often times, that can lead people astray, down a dark path that is beholden to tyranny. There are also those who speak nonsense, with no strategies, and just virtue-signal about the way things ought to be. It wasn’t until I came across a movement that gave me real hope for righting the ship and bring our nation back to its roots: Article V Convention of States.
Article V states:
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, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of modification may be proposed by the Congress, provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight (1808) shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
Article V is quite clear: there are two methods for proposing amendments. Either two-thirds of the Congress of the United States, or through two-thirds of state legislatures via a convention process. Both methods then require ratification from three-fourths of the state legislatures. Simple enough, no?
Now come forth the enemies of the Constitution, who start bearing down on Article V Convention of States as the movement gains steam. There are now twelve states on board with Article V Convention of States: Georgia, Alaska, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arizona, North Dakota, Texas, and Missouri.
On the map above, green shows the states which have passed the resolution in full. Yellow indicates where the resolution has passed in one chamber, and blue states are those who have active legislation in 2017.
The enemies of the Constitution already have begun their attack against the process:
“It’s a Constitutional Convention.”
No, it’s a convention of state legislatures, the rules of which are determined by the states themselves. The actual language is literally written in Article V itself. The “constitutional convention” types are people who are either misinformed, or are deliberately being dishonest.
Not to mention that our current federal government, along with the Supreme Court, already has an ongoing constitutional convention – just look at the laws and regulations that keep getting pushed out, regardless of constitutional issues at stake.
Let’s get away from the Ben Rhodes method of making up fairy tales, like this “Constitutional Convention”, and get back to reality.
“It’ll be a runaway convention.”
Is there anyone dumb enough to think that conservatives, who place great value on the Constitution, are going to start rewriting the very thing they cherish? And Article V expressly forbids this from being the case.
We the people follow the rule of law; the problem here is that the federal government, in particular the un-elected bureaucracy, often does not.
“The entire Constitution is up for grabs!”
The Article V process clearly states this is not the case. In every other instance where the Constitution was amended, it was done via two-thirds of Congress. These amendments then had to be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. Was the entire Constitution up for grabs then? Of course not. This nonsensical fear-mongering is typical Leftist Obama tactics.
The process of ratification is the exact same, in the end. The first part of the process is different, with the states deciding as opposed to Congress.
Because, let’s be real here: what Congress is going to vote to term-limit itself?
“Our government will never go along with it anyway.”
They don’t have any choice; they have no say. Congress has no part of this process. The Executive has no part of this process. The Supreme Court has no part of this process.
Isn’t it nice to think that you can legally tell the federal government to shove it for a change?
“We don’t have any James Madison or Thomas Jefferson today.”
Any idiot can do a search and verify that those men are indeed dead. Also, Karl Marx, Hagel, John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson are all dead. By that same logic, everyone should immediately abandon Marxism/Statism since its founding ideologues are long dead.
Our founders didn’t put Article V in the Constitution for themselves; they did it for their progeny. Because no one except the bad guy from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade actually believed they would live forever.
Oh, and the man behind Article V was George Mason, by the way. Just a fun fact.
“But it could be dangerous.”
So is driving a car or taking surfing lessons. Or using a weed-whacker. I don’t even get this objection to Article V at all.
Good grief, even clowns like Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz, with a combined IQ level of negative ten, can come up with a better rebuttal than that.
“Why bother with Convention of States when we have Nullification as an option?”
So we’re Confederates, now? I thought that flag was racist, and all monuments of that sort had to be torn down.
Article V is a legal method, in the Constitution, to push back against the oppressive federal leviathan. What happens when citizens have no legal recourse to correct an out-of-control government? Armed insurrection and rebellion.
I don’t want blood in the streets. I’d rather use the Constitution to save the Constitution.
Finally, on this point: if my local/state government shows no regard or respect for federal laws (i.e. nullification), how can my local/state government then turn around and expect me, the private citizen, to have any regard or respect for their laws?
My advice is to resort to the better angels of our nature and not plummet down the slip-n’-slide rabbit hole of nullification.
“So why Article V? We can keep trying to elect solid conservatives into government.”
Well that clearly hasn’t changed much. Republicans took the House in 2010; they whined about their lack of power. Then Republicans took the Senate in 2014; again, they fumbled and whined. Then in 2016, the President, Senate and House were all Republican. And we still have a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court.
Well, sort of – Anthony Kennedy might have a bowel movement that sees him lurch in the opposite direction of liberty. And John Roberts still hasn’t figured out what qualifies as a “tax” yet.
And what has changed? We still have a rogue bureaucracy that churns out regulations absent Congress. We still cling to the edge of our seats on any major Supreme Court decision. We still have this belief that a President can turn the country around by himself, when even the “I have a pen and phone” Barack Obama couldn’t get away completely with his radical Leftist agenda.
President Donald Trump is not going to be able to right this ship during his term (possibly two terms). The House Freedom Caucus is not enough to turn things around. Senators like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are not enough to turn things around. And all the lobbying groups and commentators talking about certain issues are not enough to change things either.
We need to couple speech with affirmative action – from a legal and constitutional standpoint. We have the ability to do that in Article V of the Constitution. The founders of our country gave us this tool as a last resort to stop the massive federal leviathan.
With more conservatives in positions of state governors and state legislators than we’ve had in a long time, the time to push for an Article V Convention of States is right now.
Our founders gave us the means; now we must have the will.
Visit the Convention of States website to learn more at: www.conventionofstates.com
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