Use the Constitution or not

There are two, and only two, ways to get amendments added to the U.S. Constitution. Either Congress proposes them or a Convention of States (which is what the Supreme Court dubbed it) proposes them. In either case the proposals go to the state legislatures to be considered for ratification. Each idea is individually considered, which is why we have 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights instead of 12.

There are two sides to this Convention of States issue, those who think the state legislators are competent and those who think state legislators are a bunch of idiots and morons (quite an insult to both the elected and those who elected them) who will destroy the nation if they try to use the Convention of States option of Article V.

The first group, the COS or Convention of States volunteers, have an informative website with all the particulars (conventionofstates.com, scroll past the petition) and think that the second option of Article V is a great check on the federal government.

The opposition’s fear of what will happen if a Convention of States occcurs can only happen if two horrendous, and insulting, events take place. Both involve state legislators.

The first is that the state legislators chosen to be a part of the actual convention will be so lawless, unethical and idiotic as to pass proposals that are not even allowed to be discussed by the terms of the resolutions each state passes before the convention even gets called. Second, the proposals are then sent to the states where the legislators will blindly pass any amendment proposal set before them.

So, without any concrete evidence to the contrary, state legislators screwing up the use of Article V and destroying our country, which is what the opposition fears will happen, cannot possibly happen. If there is any evidence that supports the opposition claim I have not found it.

By the way, the opposition also claims that the one and only Constitutional Convention this nation has ever had ‘ran away’ and the delegates at convention violated what they had been sent there to do. Pre-convention documentation disproves this claim.

Also, a short list of the opponents to a Convention of States include Hillary Clinton, George Soros, The John Birch Society, Common Cause, Eagle Forum, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

You draw your own conclusions based on the facts.