I am writing this on day one of the government
shutdown. The sun rose this morning, the
air is breathable, the water is drinkable, and I was able to go to work. Unless you are a government employee
furloughed due to the shutdown, today is life as usual for most Americans. However, this shutdown does reveal the leaks
in the constitutional roof that the founders built to protect citizens from
intrusive tyrannical government.
If our Congress, Senate, and President were true to their
legal obligations, they would pass a budget for the entire fiscal year rather
than debating continuing resolutions every few months. Of course if they had a budget, they would be
required to abide by it and would not be able to recklessly spend money our
country does not have as evidenced by the growing debt in our nation.
When our founders created our Constitution, they had just
fought a bloody war to gain independence from the tyrannical British
Crown. They had tried government based
upon the Articles of Confederation but found that government structure to be
weak. Under the Articles of
Confederation, the states “retained their sovereignty, freedom, and
independence and every power, jurisdiction, and right …not…expressly delegated
to the United States in Congress.” (1) The following is a list of weaknesses in the
Articles of Confederation:
- Each
state only had one vote in Congress, regardless of size.
- Congress
did not have the power to tax.
- Congress
did not have the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce.
- There
was no executive branch to enforce any acts passed by Congress.
- There
was no national court system.
- Amendments
to the Articles of Confederation required a unanimous vote.
- Laws
required a 9/13 majority to pass in Congress.
When the founders convened in Philadelphia, they knew they
had to perform a massive balancing act.
The weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation demonstrated the need
for a stronger federal government but they needed to find a way to insure that
federal government would not become like the tyrannical monarchy they had
fought for independence from.
The Constitution that came out of that convention was one
that established a stronger federal government but one that would have its
power shared by three co-equal branches of government. (2) These branches of government would also have
checks and balances on each other to insure one branch did not attempt to take
control of the entire government, thus setting up a monarchy. (3)
As additional protection for the citizens, the first
Congress also introduced amendments, what are now referred to as the Bill of
Rights, to place limits, or what I refer to as guardrails, as additional
protection against tyranny. Many of the
founders did not support the Bill of Rights, believing that government may
believe it has power to do anything not specifically prohibited in the
amendments. Madison, one of the founders
opposing the amendments changed his opinion when it became evident the
Constitution would not be ratified without promising of adoption the
amendments. (4)
The Constitution as originally written provided protection
for the citizen’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that the
founders desired when they authored the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately, the once solid roof protecting
the citizens of the country has become a leaky roof failing to protect citizens
due to liberal progressive politicians who have little regard for the limited
government the constitution established.
Today we have justices legislating from the bench. We have a president promising to go around
congress if they do not give him what he wants and then legislating through
executive order. Campaign finance laws
that restrict free political speech, the very speech the founders were looking
to protect with the first amendment.
Worse yet, without the constraints of a budget, our government continues
to run up massive debt. This debt will
be the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren to repay.
We have tried to change Washington through the electoral
process only to have those we elected to fix things, become part of the
establishment and thus, part of the problem.
However, the founders did leave us a way out in article 5 of the
Constitution.
Article 5 says the following, “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 ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no
amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and
eight 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.”
(5) In other words, there are two methods of
amending the Constitution, through the Congress or through the states.
The events of the past two weeks have shown us that it would
be virtually impossible to get two-thirds of the present Congress to agree to
the color of the sky let alone amending the Constitution so I believe it is
time to implement plan B, a convention of the States.
This is not my idea but the idea of Mark Levin in his recent
book The Liberty Amendments. (6) This is a book I would highly recommend and I
have provided a link at the top right section of this page to order it. In the book, Mr. Levin makes the case for the
state conventions by first dispelling the myth that this would be a
constitutional convention to replace the Constitution with something else. This convention is only for the purpose of
proposing amendments to the present Constitution and the amendments only become
law after three-fourths of the states ratify them.
What the second amendment option of article 5 does do is
provide a way for us to bypass Washington, which is broken, and propose
amendments to the Constitution that will repair the leaks liberal statists have
punched in our Constitution. I will be a
difficult process but not an impossible one.
I encourage everyone to begin paying closer attention to
their state legislators and governors as they will be key to making the
convention of states a reality. This
does not mean we totally ignore what Washington is doing but that we also must
prepare for the implementation of plan B, the state convention, to repair the
leaky roof in our government. If the
Republican Party wants to be part of this process, they are invited but rest
assured, we the people are going to do whatever we constitutionally can to save
our nation from demise. Fellow political
avengers, it is time to act for we have a great nation to save and will accomplish
it with or without the help of the Republican Party.
1. Kelly, Martin. Why did the Articles of
Confederation fail? americanhistory.about.com. [Online] About.com.
[Cited: October 1, 2013.]
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/governmentandpolitics/f/articles_of_confederation_fails.htm.
2. —. Separation of
Powers. americanhistory.about.com. [Online] About.com. [Cited: October
1, 2013.]
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/usconstitution/g/sep_of_powers.htm.
3. —. Checks and
Balances. americanhistory.about.com. [Online] About.com. [Cited: October
1, 2013.]
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/usconstitution/a/checks_balances.htm.
4. Ph.D, Joseph
Postell. Securing Liberty: The Purpose and Importance of the Bill of
Rights. www.heritage.org. [Online] The Heritage Foundation, December 14,
2007. [Cited: September 10, 2013.]
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2007/12/securing-liberty-the-purpose-and-importance-of-the-bill-of-rights.
5. Archives,
National. The Constitution of the United States. www.archives.gov. [Online]
The United States Government. [Cited: October 1, 2013.]
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/article-v.html.
6. Levin, Mark. The
Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic. New York : Simon
and Schuster, 2013.
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