Great speech by Joanna Martin "Publius Huldah" on Convention of States Project and why we should never have a COS. She points out that most of what the Federal government is currently doing is unconstitutional and we don't need any amendments to rein them in.
She identifies Mark Levin's amendments and how it would enshrine as law those powers that the government has usurped.
Ok, as I understand it:
Convention of the States IS the common vernacular Constitutional Convention. The Founders specifically enshrined Anything not federal powers is up to the States.
This is WHY local state representatives are important elections.
The state legislature calls for the convention, and may name articles they(the state) are concerned with. Then the governor passes it or not like any other legislation. the legislature or governor elects two people to represent/argue-send to the COS (your state rules may vary)
When 2/3 majority of States call for a convention, then it's called, and has the power of assembly. Huge debate, states submit the articles they want, and the entire body boils it down to articles they can agree upon -Again 2/3 of those state representatives must vote up or down on the articles to become actual articles they present for ratification.
There's a high hurdle, 2/3 is a large majority hurdle, hell, even the location & times will be a brawl. Wako stuff may be presented for consideration, but again 2/3 of the state reps need to agree on the articles & wording, Essentially only one or two or three articles at most will actually be voted to present back to the states -So the scare of bullshit changes to the constitution is largely that a scare or subterfuge, hard to get two people to absolutely agree, much less than 100...
THEN
The articles agreed upon get sent back to the states to ratify. they argue in local legislatures, probably meet with people, maybe even local referendums, eventually the state legislature votes to ratify yea or nay, and present it to the governor, who signs it or rejects it. -Just like any other state legislation.
If the State ratifies it, that is a "vote" that is sent to U.S. CONgress, who's only role at that point is tally-keeper.
If 2/3 of the states "vote" to ratify one, or all the articles, then the amendments are automagically passed, if less than 2/3 they are defeated. There may or not be a symbolic vote in the house, made by the state reps -I am not clear on that formality. but the reps are bound by their state's position. Essentially, like the impeachment vote, congress acts like the tally-keeper and Roberts, they can only say it passed or not by count. NOT inject any other bull----
So, it won't be any radical changes, unless 2/3 of the state legislatures are radical leftists.
At most, it could be articles such as: Balanced budget mandate, Term Limits, maybe NO-Sharia Ever, maybe a reversal of roe v wade, or change to immigration.
There will be many other articles submitted and debated and voted upon, but it really is going to be limited as to what passes by 2/3 of the states AGREEING on an articles.
The Convention of States, is the remedy of States to reign in a rogue CONgress or to get issues raised that CONgress has dropped the ball long enough to piss the states off.
It's the LAST thing CONgress wants to occur, as it renders them impotent. There's also a good incentive for Congress itself to ACT, Because Articles of Constitutional Amendments, can also occur in & BY CONGRESS, as has happened with most of our other amendments...So a COS can be a good incentive for spurring a Do-Nothing Congress, into action.
So really, a COS can submit ANYthing, but the high bar of 2/3 of the states agreeing, curbs the utter nonsense pundits put forth. they could even LIMIT CONgress' Powers, give the president more, End the fed etc. Provided that the majority of the states agree the action is necessary.. it could go on for months, even years, and could be mooted by Congress actually acting before the states ratify their articles.
Bottom Line it's a message to Govt, that the PEOPLE & their state Legislators will have remedy one way or the other....
make sense ?
Did you even watch the video? I don't think so because she negates your argument. She talks of two ways to amend the Constitution. One is the COS where the delegates decide at the COS to do what they want (there are already constitutions in the wings waiting to be voted on (mentioned in the video), or the amendments Mark Levin and others recommend that will just enshrine into law things the government is already doing that are unconstitutional) or the states offer amendments and then 2/3 of the states vote on it. There are two ways. Your argument puts both together so you don't understand the process. Perhaps you should watch the video and get educated.
The convention of States = Constitutional Convention
Constitutional Convention is the common name for it.
You can bet there's all sorts of waky alt-constitutions, and things like eliminating the electoral college , waiting in the wings...
the delegates, are sent by the state Legislatures, they can be anybody, but they probably will be state legislators themselves. Just like in congress, the delegates propose amendments.
Each State gets One Vote, and an amendment must have 2/3 majority to be adopted aka present to congress to enact the ratification process of each state then voting to ratify the amendment(s) that survive the COS adoption process.
An amendment then is ratified if 2/3 majority of states vote to affirm it -again one vote per state.
Either she or you are confused about the two methods.
Levin, wrote a book on the Convention of states. specifically about the constitutional process provided under Article V (five) of the Constitution.
The "second" or actually the more widely known method IS the same process only it is by normal vote of the Congress, incidentally where states can have more than one representative Vote, (aka more reps=more population)
Those are the ONLY Two Methods provided by the Constitution under Article V to amend the constitution.
RE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Five_of_the_United_States_Constitution
I get the sentiment though, there are a lot of considerations to a Convention of States, not the least the number of waky proposals we may see from say -Blue States, fortunately, they must first be adopted by 2/3 COS majority, THEN Ratified by 2/3 of the states Majority to enact the amendment.
OR a Congressional Vote to adopt an amendment, THEN 2/3 of the state legislatures vote to ratify
it's just that people think a "constitutional convention" is some separate process when it is NOT.
Again, a LOT of people think a Convention of States somehow "turns into" a constitutional Convention, they are one and the SAME.
Lol, I would recommend you do some reading of the Constitution, rather than some internet blog/video
Yes both she and I are quite aware of the two methods. The Convention of States project is what I referred to which is a drive to push for a constitutional convention. What you don't consider is that having a convention could throw out our current Constitution and replace it with something else like they did the first time we had a constitutional convention and they threw out the Articles of Confederation. You obviously didn't watch the video because she quotes the founding fathers and the Federalist papers. Perhaps you need to do more research into the Federalist papers as well.
Did you know that Levin's proposal for an amendment would actually codify into law what our Government is currently doing that is unconstitutional?
Hi Kamy,
the chances of throwing out our current constitution is slim and none.
2/3 majority is a very high bar politically speaking.
In a COS it would be 50 states each with a single vote. or 33 and (1/3)
If it were initiated in the house, The number of voting representatives in the House is fixed by law at no more than 435, proportionally representing the population of the 50 states. 2/3 = 290 at max (too lazy to look up the current # of reps)
in Essence the 2/3 is called a supermajority for a reason.
It would be very difficult to get them to agree on a lot of pundit's speculated amendments, including Levin's...
so it would probably boil down to Really Hot button items, such as balanced budget, Term Limits, immigration-such as codifying elimination of anchor babies. it would have to be something that most of the people and their reps agree on.
then they write the language, and all the alterations to that -arguments resume...
when that's settled, then it gets sent back to states to Ratify any amendments, again by 2/3 majority
I guess what I am saying is, much like the impeachment fiasco, they can argue for just about anything
the chances of hairbrained ideas passing, not so much, sure there is a chance.. but it's very small..
It would be a shitshow at first, politico's pandering to their districts as we always see, but thankfully the founding fathers set a high bar, so that what boils down is something that that supermajority can agree upon at least in TWO major Votes, separate ratification process, and it would be SLOW unless they all agreed on something from the start...
The Convention of States Project of course has it's own agenda, with corresponding suggested amendments what would boil down to the actual wording & after effects can be much different..
it will boil down philosophically to constitutional Originalists making common sense amendments such as balanced budget and/or term limits for congress
VS
The Expected socialist/commie stuff coming out of california and things like abolishing the electoral college or term limits of SCOTUS...
The COS was intended as remedy for things that Congress ignores, such as self-imposed term limits, so the states can FORCE the issue via COS...
it's not the scary thing the pundits make it out to be.. RE: Over the years, the states have enacted over 400 applications for a convention, but none has ever been called, because two-thirds of the states have never agreed on the subject matter.
Good conversation BTW...
And No I have not watched the video, re: all the above.. ;)
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. With Bernie Sanders and socialism being so popular and Bloomberg stating that he bought 21 Democrats for Congress in 2018, frankly anything is possible today. I would never have dreamed so 5 years ago but here we are. With Bloomberg's fortune of between 59 and 64 BILLION dollars, he can bribe quite a lot of people and still have money left over. He is looking to take our guns and he flipped Virginia. He is a real life Dr. Evil and things are moving in a weird direction. Our government is already doing many things that are unconstitutional and the people in power are doing all in they can to stay in power. Even in my state which is a red state some of my state GOP reps have "reached across the aisle" to side with the Democrats to institute bad policies and the GOP has the majority. So I've seen first hand that the oligarchs are not giving up.
Now, Don't Get me started on the damnable commies !
I am from the Era that they were Mortal Enemies and to be feared, hated, and to be fought everywhere we got whiff of 'em. McCarthy was RIGHT !
The thing that gets me, is we still have the laws on those books, but nobody prosecutes, it's illegal to do a LOT of the commie activity we see today ! IE We could yank federal funding to colleges where they promote that shit !
The radical billionaires well, while they can and do a lot of damage, they can't buy TRUTH. We Live in an Era of information -SHARED information Bazillions of times further than our little thread, and the WORLD is Waking up to their Bullshit !
I have always been a registered independent, the fukkers have to work for my vote, although the last few decades I have voted for GOP, and this year STRAIGHT GOP on the ticket. The RINO is a problem I think also the people can solve via their vote.
I am hoping for a congress house & senate that is GOP or Trump leaning, then we might start adding permanence to the Presidential Actions & Orders !!
President Trump is just the kind of SOB I have always wanted, what I fear is after 2024 !!
It's possible Jr. can assume the role and keep the momentum going, but We need a gaetz or Jordan or Collins to actually dig deep into the permanent Govt Class and decimate them.
the fed is still printing clownbuks, at some point the world economy will evaporate because ALL the central banks are doing the same thing.
Not to mention Younger people will actually have to fight the Coming Holy War, and I'll be fucked if its not going to come from Europe itself !
I pity the places like poland and slovenia islands in a sea of jihadis... I think a huge indication of that is when they sac the Vatican, and behead the pope (not just bergolia could be ANY pope) they will mill around for a while and then spread out on their world domination tour... That is if we don't get swallowed up here via demographic jihad...
I used to get foam at the mouth crazy over this stuff, especially since it looked like Obama and then Hilary were actually throwing the levers of destruction. , my kids hated my e-mails LOL, but then came Trump, and he WON, further he reversed almost all of the important bullshit and working on the rest.
When I realized that all media was actually syops to induce emotions, I stopped it all, and life is grand now LOL... Their entire goal is to induce raw unthinking emotion, everything is a crisis, and 'they' have the answers... They go LIMP when they are IGNORED !
So long as each Generation fights against the usurpitations, we will remain. The Constitution is a self-healing mechanism, that I don't think even the Founding Fathers would have imagined, but it takes a Moral and educated people to KEEP it !
I agree with a lot of what you said. In my opinion the Constitution was a divine inspired document because it is the only one like it in the world. That being said, it has been overrun. There is so much that is against the Constitution that is being done. I have read that Trump wants to go back to the gold standard. I hope so. He is definitely an answer to our prayers about the globalists and where they have been taking us. Agreed on media too. But I'm hoping that the truth is getting to people and they are breaking the chains of brainwashing. The millennials are really brainwashed but it looks like the younger generations are smarter and not taken in by the BS. Since we are still around and are fighters, hopefully we can prevent the millennials from doing too much damage until we can get the next generation in a position to take over from us. Trump 2020
She also mentions the Communist Constitution, the North American Union and George Soros. Well worth your time to educate yourself about the COS project.
If they're already ignoring the Constitution, what good would amending it do, anyway?
This is some ridiculous bullshit. Look at the exhibit list on her blog, which links to her other papers, which link to her other papers, etc. etc. It's turtles, all the way down. Start anywhere you like, e.g.:
"COS is telling you that we can fix our problems..." No. COS is telling you that, in order to fix some of the problems we're seeing, e.g. runaway spending from Congress, we need to impose constraints that Congress can't bypass. That isn't saying that the measures will be SUFFICIENT to "fix our problems," it's saying that the amendments are NECESSARY. TL:DR? NECESSARY, NOT SUFFICIENT. Her argument is a completely deceptive distortion of the facts. And the argument that "But our Constitution already limits the fed gov't ..." means WHAT? That and a dollar will buy you a lottery ticket. It's a non-sequitur; so the fuck what?
"COS's entire case is based on a fake quote..." This is rancid bullshit. AGAIN, she links to her own fucking papers. Then from there, you finally link to an actual COS document, but the document is HARDLY "COS's entire case;" the document's sole purpose is to answer the objections and lies constantly pushed by the John Birch Society. This is grossly dishonest of her, to push this kind of nonsensical assertion (e.g. "COS's entire case..."), and tells you all you need to know about either her mental state, or her character, or both.
Her argument boils down to:
ANNND that's all bullshit. Read Rob Natelson's book, The Law of Article V, if you want to actually understand what's true, from someone who isn't half-educated in the subject, and here's a rebuttal of her central premises/bases: https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/conventionofstates/pages/145/attachments/original/1410015956/Answering-Huldah.pdf?1410015956