Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

A new conservative journal is out, and I think it’s going to be worth subscribing to.  It’s called American Affairs, and it has an article by Michael Anton,  who is currently serving on Trump’s NSC.  Anton wrote a famous piece back during the campaign (it seems like yesterday) calling 2016 the Flight 93 election.  The ship was going down, and it was going to be necessary to turn the cockpit over to an unstable rookie.  It was very well done, and nearly convinced me.

Anton says that a nation seeks peace, prosperity and prestige.  He says a nation doesn’t have to be prosperous, but that’s the way Americans like it, and that’s what they want.  He goes on to say that “Our commercial relations around the globe are thus matters of national security.”  On that point, he’s wrong.  They are matters only of national interest, and are subordinate to the national security.

Anton served in Bush II’s NSC, and here is where it shows.  Bush was a chamber of commerce Republican, and Anton is advocating a chamber of commerce foreign policy, where American blood is shed for commercial interests.  Iraq was a war, in part, for oil security.  America doesn’t need that oil any more, so we’ll never go to war in the Middle East again.

A chamber of commerce foreign policy is anti-Russian and pro-NATO.  That’s where the money is, in Europe. They are our most important trading partner, and the chamber of commerce would go to war on their behalf.

Trump is not a chamber of commerce Republican.  He’s a stone cold American patriot, and I don’t think he’s going to allow the sons and daughters of America to get killed fighting for the Europeans.  I suspect Bannon shares his views.

All this anti-Russian hysteria is a political problem, one which will impede better relations with the Russians.  Political problems have political solutions, and I think Trump and his innermost circle, (which, I’m pleased to point out, definitely includes Jeff Sessions) will figure their way through this.

It seems to me that the media are going whacko, on all this Russian stuff.  It’s like they’re whipping themselves into a frenzy, in their hatred of Trump.  You wonder, how long can they keep this level of hysteria up?  They’re going to burn themselves out.

Like the man says, the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

“You can’t know what it’s like out there!  I’ve WORKED in the private sector.  They expect ‘results’.”  Dr. Raymond Stantz, in Ghostbusters. 

Common Cause, lavishly funded by the public employees unions, has emerged as the strongest ally of the John Birch Society in its efforts to block the Article V BBA.  Special Agent Enns reports that, when the BBA Resolution came to the Idaho Senate floor, the scene outside the Senate chambers was a little incongruous, with crowds of Birchers intermingling with public employee union supporters.  Gathered as one, to fight for unrestricted federal spending, until forever, or when the money runs out.

This odd couple was joined by representatives of the ACLU.  How a BBA threatens civil liberties was not explained.  What is clear is that the Birchers, and those who heed their call, are dupes of a left wing conspiracy to stop a BBA.   George Soros is writing big checks.  My guess is that if the United States goes bankrupt, Soros has figured out a way to make a killing in the market.  So the  money he’s spending is kind of an investment.  If an Article V Convention was actually a threat to the Constitution, Soros would be all in.  He hates this country, the people in it, its history, and its Constitution.  He’s declared war on us.  We’ll see who wins.

Our main man in Idaho, Greg Casey, an old acquaintance of Lew Uhler, is ready for round two next year, and he and his associate Ken Burgess, along with Loren, have already sketched out a game plan.  As Arnold said in The Terminator, “I’ll be back.”  Our principal opponent, Sen. Bart Davis, is on tap for appointment to become the U.S. Attorney for Idaho, and his presence will not be missed.   Now that we know what we’re up against,  we’ll be better prepared in 2018.  If there was some way to induce Casey to become active outside Idaho he would be a tremendous help.

We got a shout out from another old friend of Lew’s, Senator Orrin Hatch, on the Senate floor.  It’s a speech no one paid any attention to.  The media is too busy asking every Republican in Washington, “Are you now, or have you ever been, in contact with a Russian?”  That’s important stuff, and a $20 trillion debt is uninteresting.

With respect to Article V, Sen. Hatch said “… questions remain unresolved, and theories untested.”  Well, we’re going to resolve some questions, and test some theories, at the Nashville Convention of States.  He also noted that the citizen’s movement for an Article V BBA is only six States short of the needed 34.  Actually, right now we’re only five States short, after Wyoming.  He closed his speech, “… the decision to use the Constitution to require fiscal responsibility belongs to the American people, not to Congress.  We can either take the responsibility we were elected for and propose a balanced budget amendment or the American people will do it for us.”

Well, we’re trying, Orrin.  It would be nice if you could direct some help our way.  Actually, I would hope that Sen. Hatch could come and testify before one of the Committees of the Convention of States.  He’s been at the BBA game, as a United States Senator, for a very long time, and I’m sure he’d like to put in his two cents worth.

I think Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin should be there as well, and maybe Fed Chair Janet Yellen.  I’m sure they all have views on the subject.

Nashville could be very interesting.  Babbie and I had a great time at the Grand Old Opry a couple years ago.  Being a kid from Richmond, California, I was never into country music, and I was blown away by the quality of the music.  And there was an undercurrent of patriotism that made the whole thing a night to remember.

 

 

 

 

All Article V proposals face a common enemy, the frightening spectre of a “runaway” Convention that somehow subverts our Constitution.  This fantasy was originally ginned up in the 60’s by, among others, Bobby Kennedy.   Rather than bicker with one another, all Article V campaigns should work together to destroy this pernicious myth.  Yours truly is guilty of some of that bickering, and will try to avoid it in the future.

The recent debate in the Idaho Senate on the BBA Resolution is a prime example of the problem.  The opponents, led by Majority Leader Bart Davis, talked a lot about balancing risks and rewards   — the reward of a desperately needed Balanced Budget Amendment, vs. the risk of a runaway.  Davis stated that the risk would have been outweighed by the reward, if Clinton had won the election.  But with Trump’s victory, the calculation changed, and now the risk is not worth taking.  So our Resolution was defeated.

The prime purpose of the Nashville Convention is to demonstrate that, in reality, as opposed to theory, there is no risk.  Not at this time, under these circumstances.  50 years ago, with the progressive anti-Constitutionalists in control of our politics, it might have been of concern.  But today, in the midst of the Trump insurrection against progressivism, it’s pure paranoia.

How would an Amendment Convention “run away”?   The delegations from 33 States will be controlled by conservative Republicans.  Why, in the name of God, would these delegations, mostly from small States, allow voting to take place on anything other than one State, one vote  —  especially since that is the universal precedent, dating back to Colonial times?   And if, as it surely would be, the voting is one State, one vote, why would these 33 Republican States go outside the scope of the Call, and allow any attack on our liberties?   Is George Soros going to bribe them all?  Can you be serious?

Or, alternatively, are Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell going to try to force the Amendment Convention to vote by something other than “one state, one vote”?   This would be lunacy, and would be ignored by the Convention if it were tried.  Congress has no authority over the conduct of the Convention, and the Convention would dissolve rather than submit to any outside authority.

The runaway argument then proceeds to ratification.  It’s claimed that the Convention of 1787 changed the rules on ratification, so any Amendment Convention could do the same.  Aside from the fact that this is historically inaccurate, it is utterly ludicrous.   What they’re describing is a coup d’etat, a group of conventioneers seizing control of the Constitution and the government.  Who would allow this coup to take place?  Where are President Trump, the Congress, the State Legislatures who control their delegations, the Courts, and the military?  Are they all going to stand down in the face of a preposterous plot to destroy the Constitution?  Or, rather, would any such attempt be made, would it be laughed at?  Is the foundation of the Republic so fragile that it could be undone by a sort of beer hall putsch?

But these are mere arguments, and the Nashville Convention will be more than that.  It will be a tangible demonstration of the absurdity of the whole idea.  The men and women present will be the same, to a great extent, as the ones who will attend an Amendment Convention.  The idea of “running away” is so foreign to these people that the subject will never arise, except to be ridiculed.  Senator Davis and other skeptics, it is hoped, will attend.  They will have the opportunity to observe, up close and personal, the people who will be entrusted with power at an Amendment Convention.  And when the Nashville Convention adjourns, will Davis and the others still fear them?  Or, rather, will he find that the delegates he has met from around the country share his devotion to the Constitution.  They are his peers, his colleagues, his fellow constitutional conservatives.  They should be embraced, not feared.

The Nashville Convention is not just about the BBA.  It’s about discrediting the whole idea of a runaway convention.  It’s good for all Article V proposals.  The Balanced Budget Amendment is in the vanguard, but Article V will be the real winner.

So it is with great frustration we see talk of protests in Nashville about the conduct of the Panning Convention.  I earlier made a reference to a proposal to modify the Resolution calling the Nashville Convention, but that was merely a concept being floated around.

The Legislature of the State of Tennessee has stepped up, shown some leadership, and is prepared to make a critical contribution to the entire Article V movement.  For this they deserve our support.  From all of us.

 

It’s hard to know what to call the cabal set on preventing a Russian-American entente.  Atlanticists, neocons, Russophobes, the Deep State, whatever you want to call them, I think they have overplayed their hand.  The attacks on Jeff Sessions, Secret Agent Man, are so over the top that their determination to control Trump’s Russia policy is blindingly obvious.  If Trump’s half the man I think he is, he won’t let them get away with it.  It may well make him more determined than ever to reach an accommodation with Putin.

If you want peace, prepare for war, as Trump is doing with his military budget, but at the same time seek some common ground with potential foes.  Russia and the United States have a common enemy in ISIS and all of radical Islam.  Working together, it’s even possible we and the Russians could establish regional stability in the Middle East.  Like us, Putin is a friend of Israel.   There are a million Russian Jews in Israel.  They’re really Israelis now,  but they are former Russians, and retain some Russian culture, and Putin is attached to them.   Both Russia and the United States are now oil exporting countries, and want to see stability in the price of oil, and the Middle East is where that can happen.  Perhaps Jared Kushner, Trump’s unofficial envoy to the Middle East, is looking into all this.  He may have even talked to the Russian Ambassador.  Lock him up!

I’d be surprised if Trump doesn’t have a back channel to the Russians.  It’s important for every President to have one.  John F. Kennedy’s back channel to Khrushchev helped avoid a nuclear confrontation with Russia in the Cuban Missile Crisis.   FDR had Harry Hopkins, Kennedy had his brother Bobby, and so on.  Jeff Sessions has Trump’s total trust, and is a man of absolute discretion.  He’s smart as hell, knows a thing or two about the world, and would be a perfect unofficial intermediary.  I hope he and the Russians stay in touch.

As soon as the Tennessee Legislature issues the Call for the Nashville Convention, I’m going to be on the phone with the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation (NCVC).  These people are pros.  Nashville gets 13 million visitors a year, and wants more.  They all spend money.  I’m going to try to get NCVC to promote the historical significance of what we’re doing.  This will be the Second Nashville Convention.  The first, held in 1850, helped put off the Civil War for a decade.  Because of its historic nature, I’ll try to convince them to pop the money for a documentary of the entire proceedings.  Maybe they could split the cost with the Tennessee Legislature.  I want a professionally produced video record of the entire proceedings, including interviews with Delegates off the floor, the whole background story.  This is the first Convention of States in 156 years.  Let’s make a record of it.

These crazy Convention of States people are going to  mob the Capitol in Nashville  next week because they feel they’re being excluded from the Nashville Convention.  This threat is backfiring, as most people in the Article V movement see it as political sabotage.  No good will come of this idea.  It’s childish and counter productive.

I can’t wait for that lucky day, 7-11-17.

The remote northern edge of the American Rocky Mountains, in northern Idaho and western Montana,  is the last stronghold of the John Birch Society.  These two States are where passage of any Article V Resolution is the most difficult.  Because of the political power of the Birch Society, we lost Montana two years ago, and we lost Idaho today in the State Senate, 11-24.

At this point, the only hope in either State is for legislative leaders such as Idaho Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis and Montana Senate President Scott Sales to come to the Nashville Convention of States in July.  Instead of imagining what might happen at an Article V Amendment Convention, they will be able to see, in person, who would be there, and who will lead it.

They will find, to their delight, that the leaders the State Legislatures of this country, those who will control any Convention of States, are cut from the same bolt of cloth that they are.  From Florida to Alaska, and from Texas to North Dakota, the people Davis and Sales will meet are as dedicated to the Constitution as anyone in Idaho or Montana.  An Article V Convention will not be a leap in the dark.  It will be a conclave of patriots.

In the mean time, the Task Force must soldier on, adding as many States to our total as possible.  The closer we are to 34, the more relevant the Nashville Convention becomes.

It hasn’t happened yet, and it may never come to pass, but another hope is that some reasonable Democrats will realize that the BBA is not a partisan issue.   The whole movement started with two Democrats, from Maryland and Mississippi.   Trump’s State of the Union was, among other things, a spending wish list of enormous size.  Does it make sense for Democrats, frozen out of power in Washington, to sit back and watch the Republicans balloon the debt?   Of course not, but counting on the good sense of the modern Democratic Party is not a good option.   The Democrats are in a political hole, and until they stop digging they’re doomed.

There may well be resistance to all this added debt from some Congressional Republicans.  At that point, the Trump administration might want to push aggressively for a BBA, to show a light at the end of the spending tunnel.  Article V is the only way we’ll ever get a BBA.  A call from Vice President Pence to Idaho and Montana might be enough to carry the day.  All he needs is a green light from the boss.  With Trump, who knows?

Article V works when there is a national consensus.  There is such a consensus on forcing Congress to balance its budget.  But the fear of Article V may prevent the safeguard represented by Article V from ever  being used.  Not what the Framers had in mind, but the political leaders we currently have may, in the end, simply be too timid.