Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

If Congress proposes a Balanced Budget Amendment, what happens to the campaign for an Amendment Convention?  At that point, would it be moot, duplicative?

Not at all.  Whatever Congress proposes, the Amendment Convention should review.  If it finds itself, satisfied, no further action would be necessary.  But if the States are not entirely happy with the Congressional proposal, they can make one of their own. It can be a supplement to the Congressional proposal, or a substitute.  The States in assembly at the Amendment Convention will be deciding on ratification, so they’ll have a pretty good idea of what will get a 3/4 vote, and what won’t.

The first time Article V was used successfully no Amendment Convention needed to be held.  The issue back then was straightforward  — the direct election of Senators.  Once Congress proposed the 17th Amendment, an Amendment Convention would have served no purpose, and was never held.  A Balanced Budget Amendment is complicated, and the supervision of the States is needed.  Congress should be under no illusion that it can somehow prevent an Amendment Convention.  If they want to pass their own BBA, fine. The States operate independently, and in a supervisory capacity..

I gather the announcement in D.C  of the Nashville Convention was received enthusiastically, and that every Legislator who has been asked has said they’d like to attend.  Who wouldn’t want to be a part of history?

The meeting in Nashville is an organizational tool.  When you study Article V closely, and work out its implications, it’s readily apparent there are two problems, education and communication.  Implicit in Article V, and not yet realized, is a fourth branch of government.  State Legislators need to be educated on that. Some get it right away.  Others never do.

Once State Legislators are aware of Article V’s potential, they need to communicate with one another about what to do with bit.  Acting alone, no State has any power.  Acting together, their power is virtually unlimited.  At Nashville, both formal and informal networks of communication will be formed.  I think there will be a consensus that term limits comes next.  And at an Article V Term Limits Amendment Convention, the delegates can decide, formally or informally, what the third Amendment Convention will meet to consider.

We should have an Amendment Convention every other summer, in odd years, when elections aren’t coming up.  It can become part of our regular political calendar.  The reason that idea is not all just smoke is because of the kind of people who serve in State Legislatures, and will be delegates to these Conventions.  They’re all going to love doing this.  What’s not to like?  Spend a week or so in some nice State Capitol, and propose Amendments to the Constitution.  I was one of them for eight years, and I’ve met hundreds from around the country.  For these guys, this is hog heaven.

There have been almost 400 comments posted at American Thinker about my article a couple days ago.  The last one posted, earlier today, was the only one by a guy who really gets it  — the power and potential of Article V.  A lot of State Legislators don’t really get it either.  But enough do to make it happen.  And more are learning.

 

It will convene in the elegant chambers of the host, the Tennessee House of Representatives.  It will be gavelled in by Speaker Beth Harwell, seated high above the floor on her podium.  Hers will be the face of the Convention, and she could not be more perfect.   She’s an attractive and gracious Southern lady, well spoken, and accustomed to  the requirements of presiding over the 99 member House.

After she calls the Convention to order she will call the roll, alphabetically.   The head of the Alabama delegation will identify himself as a delegate chosen by the Alabama Legislature to represent it at the Convention.  He may want to say a few words, explaining why Alabama chose to attend the Convention.  Then Alaska, and through the 50 States.  Some States may have chosen not to send a delegation.   The TV audience in that State will wonder why.

On the display screen which normally displays the names of the 99 member House, and how they are voting, the names of the States will be listed instead.  When Alabama identifies itself, a green light will appear after its name, the same for Alaska, and on through the roll.  The light next to the  names of States not attending will remain dark.

All of this will be observed by people across the country.  No one has ever heard of a Convention of States, and people will be curious.  This is an historic meeting, with serious business to attend to.  Its success will be, above all, in how it is perceived by the public.  It  must all be scripted in advance, to maintain order and decorum.  In one sense, it is political theater. How does it all look?

The audience, for the very first time, will see how the Framers envisioned the country.  It was a union of the sovereign States, and when assembled they have a higher authority than Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court put together.  This Convention is for the purpose of agreeing on the forms and procedures to be used in exercising that authority.  It will set the rules, and agree on the procedures for the Article V Balanced Budget Amendment Convention, which is expected to be held later in the year.  It will also recommend to Congress where that Amendment Convention should be.

The first piece of business is the election of a Speaker of the Convention.  Another delegate from Tennessee, probably from the Senate, will call for  nominations.  If someone, for some megalomaniacal reason, wants to replace Speaker Harwell in the Chair, they’ll have to explain why.  It’s her chamber, she belongs in the Chair.  She’s perfectly competent to do the job.  She’s presided over the Tennessee House for six years.  She can handle it, and she’ll be fair.  So what’s the problem?

A floor leader, probably a Tennessee Senator, will then make a motion that a Committee on Committees be appointed.  Or all this may have been agreed on beforehand.  As long as 26 States can agree in advance on something, it will happen.  I don’t see any reason why Tennessee should not lead this Convention Majority.  All the western and southern States would support it, and that’s almost 26 right there.  If this ad hoc coalition can be formed, it can decide on everything in advance, and the Convention itself will be largely ceremonial..That’s the way it should work.  There’s really not much to disagree on.

And when it adjourns it will have accomplished its purpose if it has conducted itself in an orderly and polite manner.  This will be the first of many such meetings, and we want the audience coming back.

They will be seeing the Constitution in action.

South Carolina State Senator Shane Massey is barely 40, and he’s been in the Senate for ten years.  He has resisted the imperial rule of Senate President Hugh Leatherman from the start, at times without any backing from even one colleague.  Finally he’s reached a point where he may be able to dislodge Leatherman from absolute power.

The ridiculous Rules of the South Carolina Senate are why we haven’t gotten South Carolina for the BBA.  Essentially, only a few bills a year are allowed to pass with a simple majority.   And Leatherman gets to decide which bills get this “preferred treatment”.  Everything else requires a 2/3 vote.  We’ve never been given the opportunity to pass our Resolution with a majority.

No one is even sure if Leatherman even opposes the Article V BBA Resolution.  He won’t say.  He doesn’t have much to say to anyone.  Even the members of the Senate Republican Majority can’t get a hearing.  If I was a South Carolina State Senator I wouldn’t put up with it.  And now, apparently, something close to a majority of the Caucus has screwed up the courage to defy an 85 year old man.  What the hell took them so long?

If Massie succeeds, by either deposing Leatherman, or forcing a rule change, we’ll get through South Carolina in a New York minute.  Well, let me take that back.  They operate at a pretty slow pace.  But we’d get it, and it could be our 34th.

As far as I know the exact date of the Nashville Convention hasn’t been determined, and I have a suggestion. Start it off on August 23rd, two days after the Great American Eclipse.  Nashville is directly in line for a full eclipse, and a lot of people, especially from the South, will be going to Nashville to see it.  If you tried to book a room for August 19th, 20th, or 21st you’d have trouble.  But by the 23rd the eclipse watchers will have gone home, and the accommodations should be available.

And if you’re a delegate from a part of the country that won’t see the eclipse, which is most of it, maybe you want to kill two birds with one stone.  Come to Nashville early, see the eclipse, and then go the first Convention of States in 155 years.

Why haven’t we done this before?  I was a State Legislator for eight years, and if it had occurred to me, I would have gotten a few States to join Alaska in having a Convention of States.  It’s easy to do.  You just do what Tennessee is going to do, and then you convince some other States to join in.  It’s a piece of cake.  And it hasn’t been done in 155 years.

Part of it is because of the language of Article V. All the people at Philadelphia knew what a Convention of States was.  Many of them had just been to one in Annapolis.  So they just assume everybody knows what one is.  But we’re so ignorant of the principles of federalism in this country that we can’t even speak its language.

Article V was designed by Madison and Mason with two goals in mind.  First, to recognize and formalize the sovereignty of the States.  Second, to force passage of the Bill of Rights.  Mason had insisted on a Bill of Rights in the Constitution, but lost.  So he walked out of the Convention and refused to sign the Constitution.  And he told them that he would oppose passage in Virginia, and thus doom the whole enterprise.  Without a Bill of Rights, Mason didn’t want the Constitution.

Madison, ever the diplomat, figured a way out.  Allow the States to amend the Constitution directly, as set out in Article V.  He then promised the delegates at the Virginia Ratification Convention that the First Congress would amend the Constitution by adopting the Bill of Rights.  And if that promise was broken, the States could get a Bill of Rights at an Article V Convention.  All these promises were made to the delegates elected in 1788.  It worked, barely.  Ratification passed in late June, 89-79.  Madison and Mason saved the day.  Without Virginia, no Constitution.

If if it wasn’t for Article V, we wouldn’t have a Constitution.  And Article V is how we’ll save it.  Starting in Nashville.

 

My latest at the American Thinker has ruffled some feathers, and Mark Levin is supposedly going to tear me a new one on his show this afternoon.  Too bad.  I’d like to come on and explain to him what is, and is not, a Convention of States.  He’s confused.

Trump is the crude reincarnation of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.  In my first campaign, for Goldwater in ’64, he was our opponent.  After Goldwater defeated him in the California primary, we didn’t see any more of Rockefeller Republicans, until Trump.

Rockefeller and Bush 1 were rivals in the V. P. sweepstakes after Nixon resigned and Ford became President.  Bush was the conservative alternative to Rockefeller, and it got down to the two of them.  Rockefeller had more money, so he was named V.P.  So the Bushes are not Rockefeller Republicans.  They’re conservatives with no balls, and that’s different.

I like Trump less than I liked Rockefeller.  He’s from Manhattan, and he’s all about  money.  Those are the “New York values” that should worry us.  Trump and Rockefeller are big spenders, lavishing huge amounts of government money into massive building projects.  That’s all Trump really cares about, building things.

So who’s going to stop him?  It won’t be Congress.  They all love spending  money.  No, it will be the States, using Article V.  And it begins this summer in Nashville.  This will all become clear the afternoon of Wednesday, November 30th at the Grand Hyatt Washington.  For the first time since 1861, a State will announce the Call of a Convention of States. It’s one of those things that if you say it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.  It’s like a self fulfilling prophecy.

The Article V movement was started by Lew Uhler’s National Tax Limitation Committee, some 35 years ago.  November 30, 2016, is when the final sprint begins.  And 2017 is when we finally pull it off.