If we do manage to get to 34 next year, we’ll be asking Congress, (or more specifically Chairman Goodlatte of House Judiciary, and Chairman Grassley of Senate Judiciary) to set the time of the Amendment Convention no later than the spring of 2016. We will also ask that the proposal from the Convention be voted on by the states not through their legislatures, but through state conventions. The Amendment Convention would finish its work by summer, allowing the states to have elections for the ratification conventions in November, 2016 — the same day as the Presidential election. Dave Biddulph imagines a split screen on election night, with one side showing the electoral vote count, the other showing the count on the BBA ratification votes around the country. Today, and for the last 30 years, 2/3 of the American people have polled in favor of a BBA, so if the Democrats running in 2016 are opposed, they’ll be hurt, badly.
That’s the ideal. If we get to 34 in 2016, it’s too late for this scenario. But what could happen is almost as good. The Amendment Convention would be held in late summer, just as the Presidential campaign kicks into high gear after Labor Day. That campaign and the Convention would take place simultaneously. The Convention would agree on a proposed amendment prior to election day. All candidates, not just Presidential, would have to weigh in on their position on the proposed amendment. All of this, all of it, benefits the Republicans, from the top of the ticket down. 2016 could be another 1980, although without the Gipper. It could be a realignment election, in the way that 1932 was for the D’s. They had Hoover to kick around then. We’ll have Obama.
Dave and Bill Fruth will be making this pitch to the Liberty Congress. Surely some in the audience will get it. I’ll be making this same pitch to all the Republican presidential campaigns, to the extent that I can get to them. Lew Uhler should be able to help there, or some of our legislative sponsors.
I’m not involved with Article V because I want to win elections for the Republicans. I want Article V. That’s the Reagan Project. It just so happens, because of the timing, that a successful Article V BBA in 2015 or 2016 has enormous electoral appeal for Republican candidates. If they can be convinced of that, they have access to the resources to make it happen.
The problem is credibility. Is the Task Force just blowing smoke? We’ve got 24, we can clearly see our to 34 (thanks to West Virginia, without one Democrat vote), but is that enough? We’ll find out in Philly on Tuesday. I think these guys are primed for Article V, and are ready to believe.
If we don’t get some help we could still do it this year. It would be unlikely.
Like flipping the West Virginia Senate was unlikely.
reaganproject.blog 